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THE  CRIME  AGAINST  IRELAND 


BY 

J   ELLEN    FOSTER 


WITH    A    PREFACE    BY 

JOHN    BOYLE   O'REILLY 


+ 


BOSTON 

D    LOTHROP    COMPANY 

FRANKLIN    AND    HAWLEY    STREETS 


Copyright,  1888 

BY 

D.  Lothrop  Company. 


PREFACE. 


This  book,  I  take  it,  is  one  of  the  latest  illustra- 
tions of  the  Irish  power  of  conversion  or  assimilation. 
Mrs.  Foster  went  to  Ireland  with  no  bias  in  favor  of 
the  people  or  their  national  cause  ;  and  she  came  away 
not  only  a  convert,  but  a  missionary,  and  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  and  impressive  of  those  who  tell  abroad 
the  tale  of  afflicted  Erin. 

Were  it  not  for  this  converting  power  there  would 
be  no  worldly  hope  for  the  weak  who  were  oppressed. 
The  earth  would  belong  to  the  strong  and  the  raven- 
ous. For  instance,  the  chains  that  were  bound  on 
Ireland  by  Cromwell  in  1642  would  still  hold  on  the 
chafed  limbs.  Cromwell  gave  the  land  of  Ireland  to 
English  soldiers  —  every  acre  of  it  except  the  prov- 
ince of  Connaught.  But  where  is  the  Cromwellian 
now  in  Ireland  ?  He  has  disappeared  like  a  stone 
thrown  into  a  lake,  or  rather  like  a  fierce  storm  of  hail 
driving  violently  into  the  breast  of  a  lake,  and  melting 
at  once  into  its  kindly  flood. 

This  same  power  is  going  on  outside  Ireland  ;  and 
Mrs.  Foster's  book  is  one  of  its  restless  reachers 
and  tentacles.  In  a  certain  way,  England  and  Ireland 
represent  essentially  different  human  forces  :  one  the 
force  of  impact,  of  organization,  of  pressure,  of  indi- 
vidualized greed  —  in  a  word,  of  concentration.  The 
other,  the  very  opposite  —  as  steam  is  to  water  —  the 


~    1629 


P7-eface. 

power  of  diffusion,  expansion,  neglecting  organization 
to  win  opinion,  preferring  to  make  all  men  of  one 
mind  to  making  a  few  men   of  one   body. 

By  this  means,  Ireland,  having  failed  to  shake  off 
the  English  grip  with  a  weapon,  is  succeeding  with  a 
word.  Instead  of  a  hopeless,  but  heroic  pike  against 
a  long-range  rifle,  Ireland  has  learned  to  depend  on  a 
weapon  that  carries  farther  than  a  cannon  —  patient 
explanation.  Instead  of  striking  her  enemy  in  the 
face,  as  of  old,  and  getting  strangled  in  the  dark, 
Ireland  arraigns  the  oppressor  before  mankind,  and 
asks  the  world  for  a  verdict.  The  passionate  one 
binds  her  heart  into  submission,  and  reasons  instead 
of  rebelling.  The  hottest-blooded  race  in  Europe,  not 
afraid  of  fighting,  God  knows,  becomes  a  national  ex- 
emplar of  the  supreme  force  of  self-restraint,  accept- 
ance, submission,  and  dependence  in  the  changeless 
instincts  of  human  nature  that  must  hate  wrong  when 
it  is  made  clear  and  work  for  justice  when  it  asserts  its 
claim. 

John  Bovle  O'Reilly. 


INTRODUCTION 


To  the  student  of  American  institutions,  the  condi- 
tions growing  out  of  our  diverse  populations  present 
great  perplexities. 

Foreign-born  citizens,  and  those  but  one  generation 
removed,  form  an  important  factor  in  our  educational, 
industrial  and  political  life. 

How  our  civilization  shall  assimilate  that  which  is 
good  and  discard  that  which  is  bad,  is  the  question 
before  the  publicist. 

Spending  about  two  months  in  Ireland  in  the  year 
1887,  I  hoped  from  contact  with  the  people  to  bring 
back  something  of  value  to  the  solution  of  America's 
problem. 

To  my  interest  in  the  people  as  related  to  us  was  soon 
added  an  intense  sympathy  with  their  historic  strug- 
gle for  national  existence,  and  their  present  wretched 
condition. 

This  struggle  is  the  latest  phase  of  the  universal  de- 
mand for  liberty.  In  my  investigation  of  the  causes 
which  have  led  to  Ireland's  present  unrest,  in  addition 
to  a  personal  study  of  the  situation  on  the  spot,  a  large 
number  of  works  written  by  both  Irish  and  English  his- 
torians were  available,  but  I  felt  the  need  of  a  summary 
which  would  present  with  as  little  detail  as  comprehen- 
siveness and  clearness  would  allow,  the  strategic  points 
in  Ireland's  history  as  affected  by  English  rule.     Such 


Introduction. 

a  work  I  have  attempted  in  the  present  volume.  The 
substance  of  the  work  was  prepared  on  Irish  soil,  and 
took  the  form  of  letters  to  the  Boston  Journal.  In  its 
preparation  I  have  consulted  a  large  number  of  authori- 
ties, and  have  been  favored  with  extended  personal 
interviews  with  Irish  and  English  statesmep,  and  with 
opportunities  of  listening  to  debates  on  pending  issues 
in  the  English  House  of  Commons. 

J.  Ellen  Foster. 

Clinton,  Iowa,  Jan.  i,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
CHAPTER    I. 

THE    INDICTMENT 7 

CHAPTER   II. 

DUBLIN   CASTLE    RULE 19 

CHAPTER   III. 

EVICTIONS 31 

CHAPTER   IV. 

LANDLORDISM 44 

CHAPTER   V. 

POLITICAL   DESPOTISM 60 

CHAPTER   VI. 

INDUSTRIAL   DESPOTISM 73 

CHAPTER   VII. 

COERCION 89 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   IRISH    LAND   QUESTION Ill 

CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    UNION 123 

CHAPTER   X. 

HOME    RULE I35 


AUTHORITIES. 


Allison.     Life  of  Castlereagh. 

Barrington,  LL.  D.,  R.  C,  Sir  Jonah.     "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Irish  Nation."  * 

Coote.     History  of  the  Union. 

Cairnes.     Political  Essays.  • 

Clancy,  John  J.     Six  Months  "  Unionist's  "  Rule. 

Duffy,  Sir  C.  G.     Young  Ireland. 

Froude.     History  of  England. 

Froude.     The  English  in  Ireland. 

Grattan.     Life  and  Times  of  Henry  Grattan. 

Green.     History  of  the  English  People. 

Lecky.     The  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Lecky.     Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland. 

McCarthy,  Justin.     History  of  our  own  Times. 

Mill,  J.  S.     The  Land  Question. 

O'Brien,  W.  Smith.     Causes  of  Discontent. 

MacNeill,  J.  G.  Swift.     How  the  Union  was  Carried. 

And    Speeches,    Pamphlets    and    Documents,   by   Gladstone, 

Parnell,  Dillon,  Harrington,  Webb,  Redmond,  Dawson,  Mosely, 

Fox,  Roseberry,  Crilly,  Leadam  and  others. 


THE  CRIME  AGAINST  IRELAND 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    INDICTMENT. 

ALL  the  world  waits  with  interest  the 
solution  of  the  Irish  Question.  Ire- 
land's long  struggle  for  constitutional  liberty 
illumines  with  heroism  or  disfigures  with 
shame  the  page  of  history.  Imperial  West- 
minster and  gloomy  Dublin  Castle  are  both 
judge  and  executioner  to-day.  The  former  is 
resplendent  with  trappings  of  royalty  and  the 
insignia  of  conscious  power,  the  latter  is  sul- 
len and  dark,  and  from  it  the  people's  heart 
finds  no  expression.  Its  bare  walls  rise  amid 
the  noise  of  traffic  in  Dublin  streets,  where 
the  multitudes  pass  in  decent  mien  to  honest 
toil,  or  crowd  in  rags  to  beg  for  bread,  or  sit 
in  squalor  and  dumb  misery.  In  sculptured 
granite  the  forms  of   Grattan,  O'Brien  and 

7 


8  The  Indictment. 

O'Connell  still  give  grim  menace  to  tyranny, 
and  promise  morning  to  Ireland's  long  night 
of  despair.  But  while  under  the  shadow  of 
Ireland's  wrongs  and  indignant  at  England's 
stupid  indifference  or  criminal  complicity 
with  those  wrongs,  we  remember  the  other 
oppressions  of  history.  Which  among  the 
great  nations  of  the  earth  may  say,  "  We 
have  not  sinned  "  ?  Russian  Absolutism, 
Turkish  Inhumanity,  German  Imperialism, 
French  Communism,  Spanish  Inquisitions 
and  (dear  America,  thou,  too,  must  hang  thy 
head  in  shame)  African  Slavery  in  the  United 
States  —  these  institutions,  whether  they  be 
to  their  peoples  the  framework  of  the  law, 
the  spirit  of  the  national  life,  or  foul  excres- 
cences upon  the  body  politic,  all  cry  out  for 
redress  in  the  supreme  court  of  universal 
history,  and  shall  find  no  full  discharge  till 
time  is  no  more. 

Foremost  among  these  criminal  nations 
to-day  stands  proud  England,  world-wide  in 
estate,  mighty  in  resources  of  material  wealth, 
glorious  in  literature  and  arts,  unparalleled 
in  achievements,  invincible  in  arms.  Eng- 
land must  bow  her  proud    head  when    this 


The  Indictment.  9 

poor  little  Ireland  —  too  near  for  successful 
resistance,  too  far  for  entire  assimilation  — 
points  in  dumb  pantomime,  or  shrieks  in 
wild  refrain  of  race  subjugation,  of  religious 
oppression,  of  agrarian  outrage  and  of  politi- 
cal despotism. 

Has  England  been  so  occupied  in  assert- 
ing her  military  supremacy  in  the  corners  of 
the  earth  that  she  fears  not  this  paralysis 
near  her  heart  ? 

While  developing  her  wealth  in  the  Indias 
and  the  islands  of  the  sea  has  she  forgotten 
a  part  of  her  united  kingdom  across  a  nar- 
row channel  steadily  depopulated  by  famine, 
pestilence,  and  forced  emigration,  even  in 
sight  of  her  great  bounty  ?  Has  she  carried 
Bibles  to  the  heathen  and  herself  forgotten 
the  Golden  Rule  toward  her  own?  Have  her 
scientists  discoursed  of  the  origin  of  species, 
the  orbits  of  worlds  and  the  distance  of  suns 
in  arrogant  indifference  to'  the  Irish  peasan- 
try close  within  her  shadow,  who  in  igno- 
rance and  misery  have  toiled  in  ditching  and 
draining,  in  sowing  and  reaping,  while  they 
brooded  over  that  anomalous  system  of 
Anglo-Irish  agrarian  economics  under  which 


io  The  Indictment. 

a  poor  season  and  failing  crops  brought 
starvation  and  eviction  to  the  tenant,  while 
sun  and  rain  and  bountiful  harvest  enriched 
him  not,  but  made  possible  his  continuance 
on  the  soil,  and  compelled  his  payment  of 
increased  tribute  (rack  rent)  to  a  foreign 
landlord  ?  Has  she  out  of  the  vitality  of  a 
national  life  nurtured  by  religious  toleration 
and  the  spirit  of  democracy  among  the  peo- 
ple, thrown  off  one  after  another  the  fetters 
of  barbarism  and  adorned  herself  with  the 
robes  of  Christian  civilization,  while  within 
the  breath  of  her  perfumes,  the  odor  of  her 
incense  and  the  sound  of  her  hallelujahs  has 
lain  —  all  full  of  sores  —  this  Lazarus  at  the 
gate  ? 

Have  not  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  has- 
tened to  her  jubilee  ?  Have  they  not  from 
sincere  hearts  joined  her  grand  Te  Deum 
and  Gloria  Patria  as  the  procession  of  half 
a  hundred  years  has  passed  in  grand  review? 
All  voices  render  unstinted  praise  to  that 
personal  nobility  of  character  in  woman,  wife, 
mother,  Queen,  which  has  set  the  name  Vic- 
toria in  the  mosaic  of  this  century's  achieve- 
ments.   But  amid  all  this  glad  acclaim  I  hear 


The  Indictment.  1 1 

Isaiah's  voice:  "  Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I 
have  chosen,  to  loose  the  bonds  of  wicked- 
ness, to  undo  the  heavy  burdens  and  to  let 
the  oppressed  go  free,  and  that  ye  break 
every  yoke." 

Did  the  old  prophet  see  Christian  Eng- 
land bound  to  this  body  of  death  ?  I  am 
appalled  as  I  read  the  page  of  history  and 
with  my  own  eyes  and  by  personal  contact 
study  the  distressing  condition  of  the  pres- 
ent. The  truth  compels  this  terrible  arraign- 
ment.    Would  to  God  it  were  otherwise ! 

What  is  the  truth  ?  What  does  the  page 
of  history  tell?  What  are  present  conditions  ? 
And  what  of  the  future  ? 

Ireland  contains  thirty-two  thousand  square 
miles.  Its  shores  are  circled  with  mountain- 
ous ridges,  save  where  deep  sea  indentations 
receive  the  water  of  its  many  rivers.  Its  soil 
is  productive,  and  the  climate  is  genial ;  the 
gulf  stream  bears  early  the  moist  verdure  of 
the  tropics,  and  stays  long  the  icy  hand 
of  winter.  The  heart  of  the  island  is  level 
or  gently  undulating,  and  ditching  and  drain- 


12  The  Indictment, 

■ 

ing  have  rescued  many  bogs.  There  is  now 
little  timber,  much  having  been  recklessly- 
wasted,  and  no  re-forestry  attempted.  With 
increase  of  grazing  lands  there  has  been  little 
increase  in  number  or  quality  of  cattle,  sheep 
and  hogs.  Its  mineral  resources,  if  any  there 
be,  are  undeveloped ;  its  great  fishing  oppor- 
tunities almost  wholly  neglected ;  its  manu- 
factories, except  only  whiskey,  porter,  linen 
and  a  few  woollen  mills,  are  extinct.  Asri- 
cultural  products  are  of  the  simplest  vari- 
eties ;  of  rotation  of  crops  little  is  known. 
Wheat,  barley,  oats  and  the  "  everlasting 
potato  '  are  grown  on  the  same  field  year 
after  year.  Potato  planting,  growing,  digging 
and  eating  being  the  simplest  co-operative 
plan  between  nature  and  the  tiller  of  the 
soil,  is  always  approved  by  the  average  Irish- 
y  man,  and  is  by  far  the  most  popular  combi- 
nation known  in  this  country. 

Why  is  Ireland  thus  now  a  mendicant 
among  the  nations  ?  She  is  not  orphaned  of 
Heaven  ;  she  is  green  Erin  to  her  sons :  she 
is  still  a  beautiful  island  of  the  sea  to  every 
passer-by. 

The  solution  of  this  sad  problem  is  found 


The  Indictment.  13 

in  the  dual  system  of  agrarian  outrage  and 
military  and  political  despotism  forced  for 
centuries  upon  her,  combined  with  the  always 
operative  forces,  for  good  or  ill,  of  race  pro- 
clivities and  ecclesiastical  dominance.  Ire- 
land's individual  history,  through  association 
of  ideas,  is  in  the  minds  of  uninterested  stu- 
dents overshadowed  by  her  political  union 
with  England.  We  are  wont  to  consider 
English  history  as  including  that  of  Ireland. 
Not  so.  One  thousand  years  had  made  a 
record  not  inglorious,  before  England's  at- 
tempted conquest,  and  Ireland's  continued 
rebellion  began.  The  Roman  Conquest,  that 
first  great  mile-stone  in  England's  proud 
race,  marks  no  time  for  Ireland.  The  Roman 
eagle  was  never  planted  on  her  soil.  Her 
people  never  felt  the  imprint  of  that  civiliza- 
tion. When  England,  deserted  by  Rome, 
asked  aid  of  Saxon  warriors  against  the  hos- 
tile Picts  and  Scots,  Ireland,, under  its  native 
elective  monarchy,  the  noble  kings  of  the 
House  of  Tara,  sought  no  foreign  alliance, 
but  by  its  own  valor  repelled  all  invaders, 
maintained  its  Celtic  race  dominance  and  its 
national  character.     England,  meanwhile,  in 


14  The  Indictment. 

exchange  for  military  aid  and  defence,  be- 
came Anglo-Saxon  in  race  and  government. 

During  the  Saxon  period,  Ireland  and 
England  alike  were  overrun  by  Northern 
marauders.  These,  sometimes  successful  in 
England,  never  conquered  Ireland  or  deposed 
her  kings.  The  Danes  held  a  few  ports,  but 
not  the  interior. 

Neither  was  Ireland  included  in  the  Nor- 
man conquest.  England  had  acknowledged 
Norman  supremacy  a  hundred  years  when, 
in  1 1 70,  Henry  11  began  the  subjugation  of 
Ireland.  And  let  it  be  known  and  remem- 
bered in  the  light  of  current  events  that  this 
first  invasion  of  Ireland  by  England  was  done 
under  the  seal  and  by  the  authority  of  Rome. 
I  quote  the  words  of  history :  "  There  was  a 
theory  of  Christian  sovereignty  encouraged 
by  Rome  and  expressed  in  a  bull  of  Adrian 
iv,  that  Ireland  and  all  other  islands  on 
which  the  light  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  had 
dawned  .  .  .  did  of  right  belong  and  apper- 
tain to  St.  Peter  and  the  Holy  Roman 
Church." 

Henry  11  had  sought  and  obtained  from 
Pope   Adrian    iv    in    1 1 55,    permission    "  to 


The  Indictment.  15 

enter  the  land  of  Ireland  in  order  to  subdue 
the  people."  The  first  conquest  of  Ireland 
was  undisputed,  but  incomplete.  Henry  set 
up  in  Ireland  the  feudal  system  introduced 
into  England  by  William  the  Conqueror. 
The  land  which  before  was  held  by  tribal 
tenure  he  divided  among  the  English  colo- 
nists whom  he  settled  in  Ireland  to  maintain 
English  supremacy  there.  The  tribal  pos- 
sessors of  the  soil  were  victims  of  military 
disinheritance  of  which  the  so-called  consti- 
tutional legal  processes  of  the  present  day 
are  the  branded  offspring.  From  that  day  to 
this  Ireland's  griefs  have  been  chiefly  caused 
by  England's  stupid  forgetfulness  or  willful 
violation  of  God's  command,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn." 
England  also  attempted  to  transplant  her 
judicial  system;  she  established  courts,  she 
proclaimed  legal  processes.  To  these  her 
English  colonists  might  flee  for  protection, 
but  from  them  her  Irish  subjects  were  de- 
barred and  could  gain  no  redress,  though 
they  sought  it  long  and  bitterly.  The  tribal 
system  of  laws  was  sufficient  under  conditions 
of  land  ownership  and  tribal  rule,  but  land 


1 6  The  Indictment. 

tenures  broken,  foreign  possessors  in  actual 
or  —  worse  yet  —  constructive  possession, 
that  former  system  was  wholly  inadequate. 
Here  again  do  we  see  England's  oppression 
of  Ireland ;  claiming  to  "  do  equity "  she 
establishes  a  judicial  system  which  in  its 
very  nature  makes  solemn  mockery  of  even- 
handed  justice. 

Assuming  to  administer  government  in 
Ireland  according  to  the  people's  will,  a  Par- 
liament was  in  due  time  established,  with 
show  of  representative  powers ;  but  the  utter- 
ances of  this  Parliament  were  in  the  main 
adulations  of  suppliant  slaves,  or  the  mutter- 
ino;s  of  automatic  hirelings.  Of  these  two 
systems  —  judicial  and  political  —  the  "  Cas- 
tle Rule  "  of  to-day  is  the  lineal  descendant. 
Through  the  centuries  of  England's  domi- 
nance in  Ireland  she  has  maintained  the  same 
general  features:  Inequality  in  political  rep- 
resentation, injustice  in  judicial  administra- 
tion, outrage  in  land  tenure,  and  coercion 
everywhere  and  always.  To  this  has  been 
added  the  cruel  sting  of  fickleness,  of  uncer- 
tainty in  policy.  Sometimes  by  temporary 
and  partial  grants   of    constitutional  liberty 


The  Indictment.  17 

she  has  sought  to  develop  strength  among 
the  people,  with  social  order  and  material 
progress  in  the  state  ;  but  soon,  disappointed 
at  lack  of  immediate  and  intelligent  appre- 
ciation and  commensurate  acceptance  of  the 
reciprocal  obligations  of  established  govern- 
ment, she  has  impatiently  thrown  away  even 
the  semblance  of  that  responsible  power 
which  alone  can  command  permanent  re- 
spect in  civilized  society.  She  did  not  in 
herself  possess  power  enough  to  long  con- 
tinue that  high  moral  tension,  that  suborna- 
tion of  brute  force  necessary  to  the  highest 
form  of  just  government ;  and,  with  strange 
inconsistency,  she  has  at  times  wearied  of 
the  cost  of  sustained  military  occupancy. 
She  has  assumed  to  rule,  but  has  allowed 
meanwhile  an  ignorant,  superstitious  and 
starving  people  to  consume  itself  in  intestine 
broils,  in  agrarian  warfare,  in  religious  exter- 
minations and  race  feuds.  The  smoke  of 
these  contests  smelling  to  heaven  has  settled 
on  England's  proud  escutcheon  and  soiled 
her  illumined  record  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

The    England    of    to-day    stands    before 


1 8  The  Indictment. 

these  accumulations  of  the  years.  Its  Tory 
Government,  represented  by  Lord  Salisbury, 
Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Balfour,  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  and  Lord  Londonderry,  Lord 
Lieutenant  for  Ireland,  will  be  judged  by 
the  brain  and  heart  of  the  English  people, 
aroused  as  it  never  has  been  before,  in  behalf 
of  Ireland's  wrongs ;  according  as  they  deal 
with  her,  will  they  receive  sentence. 

This  question  takes  precedence  of  all 
others  in  popular  thought ;  it  absorbs  all 
others  in  the  nation's  heart.  This  genera- 
tion is  not  responsible  for  the  sins  of  its 
ancestors,  but  this  generation  must  reap 
what  others  have  sown.  The  operation  of 
this  law  is  as  inevitable  concerning  nations 
as  with  individuals  ;  its  results  are  inexor- 
able in  ethics  as  they  are  universal  in  nature. 


CHAPTER    II. 

DUBLIN    CASTLE    RULE. 

ENGLAND  boasts  that  her  people  en- 
joy the  highest  form  of  constitutional 
liberty.  She  points  to  hoary  precedents  of 
asserted  and  sustained  popular  sovereignty  ; 
to  her  Magna  Charta  and  Bills  of  Rights, 
which  guarantee  free  speech,  free  press  and 
the  right  of  trial  by  jury.  The  government 
of  Ireland  by  Castle  Rule  brands  this  boast 
as  a  pitiful  sham.  British  subjects  in  Ire- 
land, impoverished  by  eviction  acts,  emas- 
culated by  arms  acts,  driven  by  coercion 
acts,  manacled  by  crimes  bills,  buried  by 
habeas  corpus  suspension,  menaced  by  con- 
stabulary enlargement,  mocked  by  peace 
preservation  acts,  seek  in  vain  for  "  ancient 
bulwarks  '  of  English  liberty.  William 
O'Brien,  M.  P.,*  (who  has  but  just  now  com- 
pleted his  sentence  as  a  political  prisoner) 
with  a  desperation  born  of  patriotism,  defied 

*  The   arrest   and  trial  of   Wm.  O'Brien  illustrates  the  practical  working  of 
Dublin  Castle  authority,  and  is  for  that  reason  referred  to. 

19 


20  Dublin  Castle  Rule. 

the  hordes  of  petty  tyrants,  and  declared,  by 
press  and  speech,  the  constitutional  rights  of 
tillers  of  the  soil. 

This  horde  of  tyrants,  hid  in  legal  and 
judicial  barracks  of  temporary  power,  silence 
his  free  speech,  threaten  his  free  press,  and 
he,  charged  with  high  crime,  is  denied  trial 
by  a  jury  of  his  peers. 

O,  Liberty !  what  crimes  are  committed 
in  thy  name. 

By  what  authority  were  proceedings  com- 
menced against  Mr.  O'Brien?  By  authority 
of  Dublin  Castle,  exercised  through  a  dis- 
trict inspector  having  immediate  control  of 
armed  constabulary.  What  is  Dublin  Cas- 
tle ?  It  is  the  seat  of  the  local  government 
of  Ireland.  This  government  is  vested  in  a 
privy  council,  made  up  of  appointees  and 
certain  privileged  classes.  Its  executive 
officers  are  a  Chief  Secretary  and  a  Lord 
Lieutenant.  The  present  incumbents  are 
Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  and  Lord  Londonderry. 
This  English  gentleman  (Mr.  Balfour)  was 
appointed  more  especially  to  carry  out  the 
provisions  of  the  Crimes  Bill,  he  being  known 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  policy  of  coercion. 


Dublin   Castle  Rule.  21 

They  are  assisted  by  fifteen  ex-chief  sec- 
retaries (English),  fifteen  noblemen,  from 
dukes  to  lords  (the  most  hated  men  in  Ire- 
land), two  past  and  one  present  commander 
of  the  thirty  thousand  British  soldiers  in  Ire- 
land. The  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  with  judges  and  law  officers  of 
the  Crown,  complete  this  strangely  consti 
tuted  "  Government  for  Ireland."  The  privy 
council,  however,  never  really  meets  for 
serious  business;  a  few  members  assemble 
in  a  back  room  in  the  Castle  to  register 
and  endorse  the  decrees  of  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant who  is  himself  the  mouth-piece  of 
Mr.   Balfour. 

The  above-named  legal  gentlemen  are  sup- 
posed to  advise  when,  and  under  what  forms 
of  law,  to  order  ordinary  or  summary  pro- 
ceedings against  obnoxious  individuals  or 
associations.  They  may  even  sit  as  judges 
(the  present  law  officials  cannot,  but  most 
of  the  judges  are  ex-Law  officers  —  one  of 
them  the  ex- Attorney  General  of  the  present 
Government)  on  first  trial  or  final  appeal  in 
the  very  cases  instituted  by  themselves.  It 
will  be  seen  that  not  a  man  of  this  "  Gov- 


22  Dublin  Castle  Rule. 

ernment "  is  a  representative  of  the  people 
or  responsible  to  them.  This  is  a  modern 
Star  Chamber.  Its  deliberations  are  with 
closed  doors  and  its  members  are  sworn  to 
secrecy.  By  its  authority  William  O'Brien 
was  arrested. 

Before  whom  was  he  cited  to  appear  on 
preliminary  examination  ? 

Before  resident  magistrates  of  the  town 
where,  as  member  of  Parliament,  he  had 
addressed  his  constituents  on  local  interests. 
These  magistrates  are  not  the  people's  ser- 
vants, elected  by  them  and  responsible  to 
them,  but  elected  by  Dublin  Castle,  and 
accountable  to  that  power  alone  for  the 
manner  in  which  they  conduct  examinations 
of  its  political  opponents.  Their  appoint- 
ment and  salary  are  both  largely  dependent 
on  the  uncontrolled  good  pleasure  of  the 
Lord  Lieutenant,  and  for  tenure  of  office 
and  promotion  he  is  absolutely  dependent  on 
the  Government. 

On  what  testimony  was  Mr.  O'Brien's 
arrest  ordered  ? 

On  the  testimony  of  certain  Castle  offi- 
cials. 


Dublin   Castle  Rule.  23 

By  whom  was  he  ordered  to  jail  to  await 
trial  ? 

By  a  Dublin  Castle  magistrate  sitting  at 
Cork. 

Before  whom  will  he  be  tried  ? 

Not  by  a  jury  of  his  peers  selected  from 
the  county  where  his  alleged  offence  was 
committed,  but  by  two  magistrates  appointed 
by  Dublin   Castle  and  making  returns  to  it. 

It  is  in  their  power,  under  forms  of  law,  to 
deprive  him  of  his  liberty  and  to  commit 
him  to  hard  labor  for  a  term  of  six  months, 
if  they  and  their  superiors  at  Dublin  Castle 
shall  deem  it  expedient  so  to  do. 

If  the  sentence  shall  be  for  a  term  of  more 
than  one  month,  he  has  the  right  to  appeal  to 
the  Court  at  Quarter  Sessions.  This  tribu- 
nal is  instituted  by  the  same  Castle  power, 
and  differs  from  the  former  only  in  number 
of  magistrates  sitting.  In  no  event  can  this 
British  subject  be  tried  by  a  jury  of  his 
peers.  Shocking  as  is  this  illustration  of 
Castle  Rule,  it  portrays  but  one  feature  of 
the  galling  despotism  under  which  Ireland 
groans.  Every  department  of  public  admin- 
istration feels  the  blight. 


24  Dublin  Castle  Rule, 

As  set  forth  in  a  speech  of  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain, M.  P.,  just  before  he  became  a  so-called 
Unionist:  "It  is  a  system  which  is  founded 
on  the  bayonets  of  thirty  thousand  soldiers 
encamped  permanently  as  in  a  hostile  coun- 
try. It  is  a  system  as  completely  centralized 
and  bureaucratic  as  that  with  which  Russia 
governs  Poland,  or  as  that  which  was  com- 
mon in  Venice  under  Austrian  rule.  An 
Irishman  at  this  moment  cannot  move  a  step, 
he  cannot  lift  a  finger  in  any  parochial, 
municipal  or  educational  work,  without 
being  confronted,  interfered  with,  or  con- 
trolled by,  an  English  official  appointed  by  a 
foreign  Government,  and  without  a  shadow7 
or  shade  of  representative  authority.  I  say 
the  time  has  come  to  reform  altogether  the 
absurd  and  irritating  anachronism  which  is 
known  as  Dublin  Castle ;  to  sweep  away 
altogether  these  alien  boards  of  foreign 
officials,  and  to  substitute  for  them  a  gen- 
uine Irish  administration  for  purely  Irish 
business." 

The  essential  feature  of  a  representative 
government  is  that  the  people  shall  be  gov- 
erned by  laws  made    and    administered    by 


Dublin  Castle  Rule.  25 

representatives  elected  by  them  and  respon- 
sible to  them.  Majorities  settle  who  these 
representatives  shall  be.  The  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  through  its  working  arm 
—  the  House  of  Commons  —  thus  governs 
England  and  Scotland.  The  "  Govern- 
ment "  is  composed  of  ministers  selected  by 
the  Crown,  but  approved  by  the  people  and 
responsible  to  them.  The  present  Chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland  was  thus  chosen,  but 
not  from  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  not 
responsible  to  them.  This  Chief  Secretary, 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  who  is  also  appointed 
by  the  Government,  live  in  Dublin  ;  these 
two  are  practically  governors  of  Ireland ; 
the  under  officials  who  manipulate  details 
of  administration  are  largely  a  permanent 
body,  their  tenures  of  office  being  contin- 
ually strengthened  by  the  indolent  indif- 
ference of  irresponsible  governors.  Three 
bodies  known  as  the  "  Big  Boards  '  cover 
the  larger  part  of  Ireland's  domestic  affairs; 
the  Local  Government  Board,  the  Board 
of  Works,  the  Board  of  National  Education. 
Every  member  of  every  one  of  these  boards 
is  nominated  by  the   Lord   Lieutenant  and 


26  Dublin  Castle  Rule. 

wholly  irresponsible  to  the    Irish  people  or 
their  representatives  in   Parliament. 

The  first  board  has  supervision  of  the 
poor  funds,  the  public  health,  the  pollution 
of  rivers,  the  diseases  of  cattle,  and  other 
purely  local  matters.  It  even  exercises  con- 
trol in  the  constitution  of  new  town  boards, 
as  to  the  number  of  members  of  these 
boards,  and  may  refuse  to  approve  details  of 
local  expenditure,  and  by  sealed  orders  dis- 
miss and  dissolve  boards  according  to  its 
own  pleasure. 

The  Board  of  Works  exercises  srreat 
powers  and  extensive  operations.  It  is 
wholly  under  control  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 
its  three  members  being  nominated  by  him. 
It  directs  construction  of  public  works  and 
the  management  of  harbors  and  public 
parks.  Minor  local  boards  having  nomi- 
nally some  little  power  are  really  subservi- 
ent to  it,  because  it  controls  the  expenditure 
of  money,  and  may  withhold  at  its  own 
option.  The  proceedings  of  this  Board  of 
Works  have  repeatedly  been  censured  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  large  majorities 
of   the   Irish    members,   but  with    no    avail. 


Dublin  Castle  Rule.  27 

English  and  Scotch  members  find  it  easier 
to  uphold  Dublin  Castle  than  to  become 
individually  informed  of  local  Irish  affairs. 
So  also  with  the  Board  of  National  Edu- 
cation. No  department  of  the  nation's  life 
lies  so  near  its  heart  as  the  education  of  its 
children.  None  could  with  more  safety  be 
entrusted  with  the  people  themselves.  This 
board  of  twenty  members,  prescribing  school 
regulations,  selecting  or  making  schoolbooks, 
en£ao-iri£  and  controlling  teachers,  is  nomi- 
nated  by  this  ubiquitous  Lord  Lieutenant. 
One  very  noticeable  feature  of  the  anti- 
national  character  of  this  so-called  National 
Board  is  the  absence  of  materials  in  the 
text  books  out  of  which  to  grow  a  national 
spirit.  The  prevailing  tone  and  conduct  of 
these  schools  does  not  nurture  patriotism. 
The  heroic  in  Ireland's  history,  being  set  in 
the  frame  of  English  despotism,  must  not 
forsooth  be  tausfht  the  children.  But,  not- 
withstanding  all  these  prejudicial  limitations, 
the  national  school  is  Ireland's  greatest  boon 
and  is  working  out  her  redemption.  Eng- 
land comprehends  too  slowly  for  her  peace, 
that  which  all  tyrants  must  sooner  or  later 


28  Dublin  Castle  Rule. 

learn,  that  the  alphabet  and  the  multiplica- 
tion table  are  universal  emancipators. 

Not  only  are  Ireland's  materialities  ad- 
ministered by  the  Castle,  but  its  public 
charities,  asylums  for  lunatics,  prison  boards 
and  boards  of  charities  and  bequests.  So 
also  the  first  circles  of  organized  govern- 
ment, the  county,  the  township  and  the 
municipal  corporations  are  under  Castle 
scrutiny. 

Grand  juries  of  the  counties  and  resi- 
dent magistrates  are  directly  appointed  by 
the  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  are  generally 
of  the  landed,  titled  class,  or  their  family 
dependents. 

To  pay  the  salaries  of  these  officials  the 
tenant  is  taxed.  Before  inquisitions  thus 
created  and  sustained  he  may  be  cited  if 
charged  with  little  or  great  offences  ;  from 
petty  larceny  and  malicious  mischief  to 
felonies  and  high  treason. 

These  judicial  functions  are  exercised 
under  statutes  enacted  by  Parliament  for  the 
United  Kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land; but  for  a  century  these  statutes  have 
been  so  warped  or  distorted  by  exceptional 


Dublin  Castle  Rule.  29 

legislation  for  Ireland,  known  as  Crimes  and 
Coercion  Acts,  that  but  little  semblance  of 
original  justice  remains.  Municipalities  like 
Dublin  and  Cork  wear  trappings  and  the 
suits  of  power,  which  are  but  fictitious  tin- 
sel ;  for  here  and  everywhere  the  Castle  is 
in  many  matters  ultimate  authority. 

This  is  in  bare  outline  the  autonomy  of 
the  Castle  system ;  to  follow  its  ramifications 
would  require  a  microscopical  study  of  the 
entire  life  of  the  people. 

This  despotism  can  only  be  sustained  by 
force.  This  ever-present  force  is  an  armed 
constabulary  of  twelve  thousand  men  sus- 
tained by  thirty  thousand  troops  of  Her 
Majesty's  regular  army. 

The  people  of  Ireland,  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, are  disarmed ;  their  miserable  huts  are 
continually  searched  lest  an  ambitious  youth 
should  by  any  means  have  secreted  the 
hereditary  fowling-piece  or  the  modern  fire- 
arms. In  the  midst  of  the  huts,  in  the  vil- 
lage or  on  the  mountain  side,  is  seen  the 
substantial  Government  police  barrack,  where 
well  clothed,  well  fed,  fully  armed  men  drill 
in  the  use  of  defensive  and  offensive  weapons. 


30  Dublin  Castle  Rule. 

So,  also,  amid  the  plain  attire  of  the  few 
well-to-do  and  the  many  ragged  of  the  na- 
tive population  is  conspicuous  the  bright 
red  coat  of  the  regular  British  soldier  or  the 
national  attire  of  the  Scotch  fusileer.  One 
cannot  walk  the  streets  an  hour  without 
these  visible  signs  of  England's  conquest 
and    Ireland's  subjection. 

This  is  not  a  mere  tale  of  to-day.  It  has 
been  continued  through  many  generations, 
and  is  a  principal  factor  in  Ireland's  present 
degradation. 


CHAPTER    III. 

EVICTIONS. 

SINCE  the  tenth  century  Ireland  has 
been  the  seat  of  wars  of  conquest  and 
the  scene  of  intestine  strife,  unparalleled 
in  the  history  of  warfare,  in  intensity  and 
atrocity  if  not  in  territorial  area.  Weapons 
of  warfare  have  changed  with  the  centuries. 
A  contemporary  writer  says  of  this  people, 
"  They  are  soldiers  from  birth." 

The  conflict  is  as  irrepressible  to-day  as 
at  any  period  in  the  past ;  the  weapons  now 
used  are  fit  for  the  occasion  and  invented  by 
its  necessities;  there  are  preparations  for  an 
immediate  charge  all  along  the  line ;  there 
are  provisions  for  an  unlimited  siege. 

In  their  present  resistance  to  the  measures 
of  tyranny  the  tenants  carry  a  flag  bearing 
the  simple  words  "  Plan  of  Campaign."  The 
landlords  through  summary  proceedings  pe- 
culiar to  the  Irish  system,  aided  by  provisions 
of  the  penal  code  framed  for  their  special 

31 


32   .  Evictions. 

benefit,  and  sustained  by  Crown  officials, 
armed  constabulary  and  even  Her  Majesty's 
troops,  begin  the  assault.  A  war  between 
these  two  contending  factions  is  waged  be- 
fore the  gaze  of  the  world ;  if  to-day  a  jury 
were  impaneled  from  the  Christian  nations, 
a  verdict  would  be  given  for  Ireland  and 
against  her  dual  oppressors  —  landlordism 
and  political  despotism.  Peaceable,  law- 
abiding  people  in  England  and  America 
watch  the  struggle  with  sympathy  for  the 
tenant  in  his  deliberate  and  systematic  re- 
sistance to  the  execution  of  law.  Gentle  and 
refined  women  cheer  the  resistants  and  do 
honor  to  the  man  —  John  Dillon  —  whose 
brain  formulated  the  plan,  and  to  the  great 
orator,  William  O'Brien,  whose  impassioned 
words  inspire  the  combatants  to  "  stand  firm," 
and  to  "  make  no  surrender."  Statesmen,  rep- 
resenting the  clearest  brain  and  the  stoutest 
moral  sense  of  two  hemispheres,  are  proud 
to  receive  as  brother-patriots  a  host  of  others, 
captains  of  fifties  and  captains  of  hundreds, 
who  lead  the  people  of  Ireland  in  this  their 
desperate  struggle.  The  names  of  Davitt, 
of    O'Neil,   of    Harrington,    of    Condon,    of 


Evictions.  33 

Clancy,  of  Healy,  of  the  brothers  Mander- 
ville,  will  swell  the  record  of  heroes  who 
loved  their  country  and  thought  it  all  honor 
to  suffer  for  her  sake.  These,  all  under 
Parnell,  commander-in-chief,  form  a  well-dis- 
ciplined army,  hardened  by  long  exposure, 
drilled  in  many  combats  and  inspired  by  real 
patriotism. 

What  is  the  cause  of  the  war  ?  "  What 
do  they  kill  each  other  for  ? '  There  are  in 
Ireland  hundreds  of  farm  tenants  who  can- 
not pay  their  rent ;  some  of  them  have  been 
in  arrears  for  years.  The  landlord  desires 
to  receive  that  which  is,  in  law,  his  due. 
The  tenants  are  utterly  unable  to  pay.  The 
landlord  serves  upon  these  delinquents  cer- 
tain legal  notices  and  orders  them  through 
forms  of  law  to  leave  their  premises.  The 
tenants  refuse  to  go.  The  landlord  says 
they  shall,  and  brings  to  his  aid  armed  police- 
men and  even  the  regular  troops.  Herein  is 
the  resistance.  Here  comes  the  tug  of  war. 
Let  us  watch  one  of  the  many  engagements 
of  this  campaign. 

Within  a  stone  and  turf  fence  lie  seventy 
acres  of  tolerable  farm  land,  except  fourteen 


34  Evictions. 

of  it,  which  is  low  and  in  wet  seasons  under 
water.  It  is  tilled  in  small  patches  of  corn, 
barley,  oats  and  potatoes.  It  was  stony,  but 
now  pretty  well  cleared ;  it  is  enriched  by 
sand  and  seaweed  washed  up  in  storms  and 
gathered  in  inclement  seasons  from  the 
strand.  A  few  sheep  and  cows  add  their 
treasure  of  daily  food  and  winter  covering. 
The  dwelling-house  is  of  stone  and  mortar; 
the  out-houses  of  similar  construction  and 
appearance.  For  centuries  this  tenant  and 
his  ancestors  have  tilled  this  very  spot  of 
earth.  They  have  drained  the  bogs,  picked 
the  stone,  built  the  dwelling,  the  out-houses, 
the  fences ;  have  put  upon  it  every  trace  of 
cultivation  which  it  bears.  The  present 
tenant,  during  his  forty  years'  occupancy  as 
head  of  a  family,  has  expended  eleven  hun- 
dred pounds  in  improvements.  On  this 
"  holding '  the  rent  has  been  several  times 
raised,  and  that  in  proportion  as  through  the 
tenant's  labor  and  expenditure  the  property 
has  increased  in  value.  Now  the  tenant  pays 
an  annual  rental  of  eighty-four  pounds.  In 
good  years,  and  when  produce  commanded 
good   prices,  the   landlord's   claim  was   met, 


Evictions,  35 

but  since  1879  have  come  bad  years,  falling 
prices,  and  the  amount  of  rental  has  not 
been  realized  off  the  farm ;  one  half  year's 
rent  is  due  and  unpaid.  There  also  hangs 
over  this  holding  a  "hanging  gale,"  that  term 
being  applied  to  an  arrears  of  one  half  year's 
rent  which  accrued  many  years  ago,  beyond 
the  lifetime  of  the  present  tenant.  This 
arrears  might  have  been  paid  in  good  years, 
but  was  refused  by  the  landlord,  the  last 
refusal  being  some  sixteen  years  ago.  This 
is  a  common  form  of  oppression ;  the  land- 
lord can  evict  without  notice  when  a  year's 
rent  is  due.  Thus  the  "  hanging  gale  "  and 
the  half  year's  present  indebtedness  make 
the  required  "pound  of  flesh."  This  one 
year's  rental  is  all  that  is  unpaid  on  this 
seventy  acres,  and  for  this  the  tenant  is 
served  with  the  ejectment  writ. 

In  the  legends  which  this  family  tells,  as 
by  glowing  peat  fires  on  the  hearth  they  sit 
of  winter  nights,  you  will  find  that  their  dis- 
tant ancestor  was  a  proud  chief  amid  his 
clan  ;  that  the  acres  all  about  were  his  and 
theirs ;  that  cornfields  waved ;  that  cattle 
grazed  upon  the  mountain  side  and  in  the 


36  Evictions, 

glens,  until,  on  an  evil  day  there  came  proud 
strangers  in  the  dress  of  men-of-war.  They 
will  tell  you  that,  though  the  men  fought 
hard  and  long,  they  were  at  last  overcome 
and  lost  their  land  ;  many  died  of  sword  and 
famine  and  pestilence,  but  of  the  few  who 
survived  their  ancestor  was  one ;  he  and 
his,  through  changing  fortunes  under  many 
kings  retained  these  few  acres,  and  from 
them  gathered  sustenance  enough  to  live 
and  rear  the  generations  that  have  been 
worn  out  on  this  soil ;  but  now,  alas !  poor 
crops,  falling  prices  and  lessened  remittances 
from  America  have  all  conspired,  and  he 
cannot  pay  his  required  tribute  to  the  titled 
owner,  who  never  expended  one  dollar  on 
the  land,  but  received  it  as  an  inheritance 
of  conquest  and  confiscation. 

Even-handed  justice  declares  this  tenant 
has  a  claim  upon  the  acres  which  he  has 
tilled;  the  resistance  which  he  makes  to 
this  eviction  writ  is  based  upon  this  sense 
of  justice. 

Under  the  Plan  of  Campaign  systematic 
resistance  was  planned;  windows,  sashes  and 
frames  are  taken  out ;  against  these  openings 


Evictions.  3  7 

iron  gates,  taken  from  lanes  on  the  farm, 
are  placed  on  the  inside  and  braced  by  logs 
as  big  as  a  man's  body  ;  these  window  props 
and  those  against  the  doors  are  secured  by 
iron  spikes  driven  in  the  earth  floor ;  grind- 
stones, anvils,  pieces  of  farm  implements  are 
useful;  blackthorn  branches  and  limbs  of 
trees,  weapons  in  themselves,  serve  as  impro- 
vised barricades.  Every  door  and  window 
having  been  secured  with  sufficient  strength 
to  resist  anv  lesser  charge  than  from  mounted 
cannon,  the  inside  space  is  filled  with  dense 
masses  of  brush  and  briers,  which  is  woven 
through  and  bound  about  with  wires. 

In  houses  containing  separate  apartments 
each  is  similarly  arranged,  and  one  or  two 
men  sleep  in  the  house  at  night,  when  a 
"charge  '  is  anticipated.  They  are  supplied 
with  rations  of  food  and  weapons  of  war, 
sticks,  pitchforks,  "  blackthorns,"  hot  water, 
hives  of  bees,  red  pepper  and  sulphur  for 
smoking  out  chimneys  if  approach  is  at- 
tempted from  that  quarter.  Sometimes  the 
women  occupants  are  left  inside  as  the  most 
vigorous  defenders. 

This  is  a  barricaded  house  under  the  Plan 


38  Evictions. 

of  Campaign.  Its  defences  and  appliances 
are  varied  according  to  the  ingenuity  and 
the  resources  of  the  tenant  and  those  who 
aid  him.  Perhaps  the  words  "  Plan  of  Cam- 
paign "  are  conspicuously  painted  on  the 
outside  as  a  signal  of  defiance  ;  outrage  and 
conscious  right  make  men  very  bold.  This 
house  is  approached  by  the  authorities  with 
an  ejectment  writ.  The  sheriff  and  perhaps 
two  deputies  first  demand  admission  ;  no 
answer  received  ;  then  begins  the  forceful  as- 
sault; he  orders  up  his  "emergency  men," 
eight  or  ten  supporters  popularly  known  as 
the  "crowbar  brigade."  They  carry  picks, 
axes,  crowbars,  and  use  them  with  what  effect 
they  can.  They  are  protected  by  constables 
with  batons  and  swords,  and  sometimes  armed 
companies  of  the  regular  troops.  The  con- 
tending parties  are  not  alone  in  these  battles  ; 
the  people  gather  from  miles  around  ;  the 
news  spreads  like  wildfire ;  for  the  battle  of 
one  tenant  is  the  cause  of  all.  It  not  un- 
frequently  happens  that  insulting  language 
is  used  by  constables  and  bystanders,  and 
assault  and  injury  and  sometimes  killing 
ensues.     Dublin   Castle,  not  long  ago,  sent 


Evictions.  39 

official  instructions  in  the  "  don't  hesitate  to 
shoot "  message  which  has  become  a  notori- 
ous  phrase  in  street  parlance. 

The  presence  of  sick  or  aged  in  the  house 
dt)  not  deter  these  evictors.  It  is  in  evidence 
that  death  has  occurred  on  the  roadside 
before  tottering  age  could  find  a  shelter. 
One  tenant  sorrowfully  tells  how  he  gath- 
ered his  family  under  the  roof  of  a  kindly 
neighbor,  but  was  obliged  the  very  next 
day  to  go  to  the  town  for  a  coffin  for  his 
dead  mother. 

A  clergyman  states  that  he  administered 
the  rites  of  the  Church  to  a  poor  woman  so 
near  death  she  could  not  be  moved ;  the 
roof  was  taken  from  the  house  over  her 
head  while  she  was  in  the  unconscious  state 
preceding  death,  and  when  she  passed  away 
there  was  only  a  winnowing  sheet  between 
her  and  the  blue  vault  above.  Houses  are 
unroofed  to  prevent  the  return  of  the  home- 
less wanderers.  Sometimes  they  are  burned 
to  make  assurance  doubly  sure. 

See  the  mournful  procession  at  the  road- 
side, on  the  highway,  mad  with  rage,  frenzied 
with  grief,  or  dumb  with  despair.     Old  men, 


40  Evictions. 

little  children,  women  with  babes  in  arms 
or  great  with  child,  are  there  :  the  tenant, 
his  family,  the  laborers  and  their  families, 
perhaps  a  dozen,  perhaps  two  dozen  souls. 
These  must  find  shelter  among  a  population 
but  little  better  off  than  themselves,  or  go  to 
the  poor  house,  or  die  by  the  roadside  or  in 
the  sheltering  ditch.  The  tale  is  so  dreadful 
Christian  credulity  can  scarce  receive  it,  but 
"  seeing  is  believing."  And  this  has  been 
going  on  for  years.  During  the  last  five 
years  the  Inspector  General  of  Constabulary 
estimates  over  fifty-seven  thousand  persons 
to  have  been  thus  dispossessed.  Within 
the  fifty  years  of  Victoria's  reign  not  less 
than  four  millions  have  been  by  these  "forms 
of  law  "  turned  from  their  homes. 

What  is  the  final  result?  Which  side 
wins  ?  Usually  the  landlord,  aided  by  the 
Government ;  the  statistics  given  show  it ; 
unroofed  houses,  burned-down  houses,  un- 
tenanted farms  everywhere  testify,  and  the 
depopulation  of  the  country  confirms  it.  In 
former  years  there  was  little  substantial  re- 
sistance; entreaties,  tears,  frenzied  appeals, 
hastily  improvised  defences  were  no  barrier 


Evictions.  4 1 

to  the  evicting  force.  Hundreds  were  some- 
times driven  out  in  a  single  day.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone in  1870  said, "  We  have  made  ejectments 
cheap  and  easy,  and  notices  to  quit  have 
descended  upon  the  people  like  snowflakes." 
But  the  combat  has  changed  ;  the  success 
of  the  landlord  is  now  difficult,  dangerous 
and  expensive.  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  in 
the  Mitchelstown  speech  for  which  he  was 
imprisoned,  urged  the  people,  through  de- 
liberate, systematic  resistance  by  the  Plan 
of  Campaign,  to  "make  evictions  as  slow 
and  as  expensive  to  the  Government  as 
possible." 

Evictions  fall  now  and  then ;  they  are 
still  hard  as  hailstones,  but  they  are  not 
"cheap  and  easy";  they  are  not  "thick  as 
snowflakes."  There  are  hundreds  of  houses 
in  Ireland  so  barricaded  that  it  would  take 
months  of  continued  siege  with  thousands 
of  armed  men  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile 
country  to  accomplish  the  undertaking. 

The  people  are,  with  few  exceptions,  in 
direct  antagonism  to  the  police  and  their 
attempt  at  enforcement.  Much  annoyance 
is  attempted.     Taverns  will  not  lodge  them ; 


42  Evictions,   . 

car  drivers  will  not  carry  them ;  they  are 
avoided  in  the  streets  as  if  infected  with 
disease.  They  are  jeered  at  by  the  pestifer- 
ous "  small  boy '  and  sneered  at  by  the 
saucy  girl ;  old  women  utter  imprecations 
when  they  pass ;  and  in  one  instance  a 
whole  congregation  left  the  church  when  a 
few  entered  to  attend  mass.  The  clergy, 
mostly  Catholics,  are  in  sympathy  and  con- 
stant co-operation  with  the  resistance.  They 
are  at  evictions  directing  the  orderly  proceed- 
ings of  these  emergency  gatherings.  They 
have  in  some  instances  been  imprisoned  for 
refusing  to  testify  of  Plan  of  Campaign  pro- 
ceedings of  which  they  had  knowledge 
through  their  professional  relations.  One 
highly  esteemed  and  greatly  honored  priest, 
Canon  Keller  of  Youghall,  was  thus  im- 
prisoned. 

Evictions  are  a  well-known  procedure 
under  all  systems  of  law;  they  are  not  pecu- 
liar to  Irish  administration  ;  but  the  system 
of  land  tenures,  landlordism  and  immemorial 
usage  is  peculiar.  Under  systems  of  injus- 
tice which  philanthropy  and  religion  have 
been  blind  to,  and  economy  and  statesman- 


Evictions.  43 

ship  were  deaf  to,  the  tenant  has  been  ground 
between  the  millstone  of  the  landlord's  avarice 
and  his  own  necessities.  The  accumulations 
of  the  years  have  left  before  him  a  mass  of 
tyrannies  and  murderous  conditions  through 
which  he  must  fight  his  way  or  die.  He 
chooses  to  fight. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


LANDLORDISM. 


THE  American  student  of  the  Irish 
agrarian  question  will  fail  to  com- 
prehend the  situation  from  a  legislative, 
political  or  humanitarian  aspect  until  he 
becomes  acquainted  with  Ireland's  historical 
grievances  and  her  unwritten  law  which 
custom  has  established  from  "time  out  of 
mind." 

The  conflict  waged  for  centuries  can  be 
traced  to  three  fundamental  wrongs ;  con- 
quest and  confiscation,  race  and  creed  ani- 
mosities, landlord  absenteeism.  These  are 
the  questions  which  the  American  philan- 
thropist must  study ;  this  is  the  problem 
which  the  English  statesman  must  solve. 

England's  conquests  of  Ireland  began 
under  Henry  n  about  the  year  1170.  He 
set  up  the  system  of  land  tenure  which  had 
been  introduced  into  England  by  the  Nor- 

44 


Landlordism,  45 

mans  a  hundred  years  before.  The  nom- 
inal title  to  the  land  was  taken  from  the 
Irish  and  parcelled  out  to  Englishmen. 
Such  of  the  original  possessors  as  were  not 
slain  in  battle  hid  in  the  forests  and  hills, 
and  returned  under  their  unconquered  chiefs 
to  contend  for  the  soil  lately  their  own,  and 
to  settle  again  upon  estates  vacated  by  Eng- 
lish colonists  who  became  wearied  with  the 
continual  defence  of  their  newly  acquired 
lands.  In  many  cases  the  English  lords 
made  common  cause  with  the  native  popu- 
lation and  were  in  their  turn  proscribed  as 
traitors  who  had  become  "  Hibernis  ipsis 
Hiberniosis."  For  centuries  a  nominal  su- 
premacy was  maintained,  varied  often,  and 
in  different  sections  of  the  island,  by  raids 
and  rebellions,  as  succeeding  kings  at- 
tempted with  more  or  less  severity  to  main- 
tain England's  authority.  No  apology  was 
made  for  this  wholesale  confiscation ;  the 
right  of  might  was  sufficient  warrant. 

Yet  at  the  beginning  of  the  Tudor  line 
the  disgraceful  incompetence  of  the  Dublin 
government  and  the  utter  neglect  of  the 
authorities    in    London    had    resulted    in    a 


46  Landlordism. 

state  of  things  in  which  the  nominal  "  pale ' 
of  English  sovereignty  was  limited  to  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  Dublin,  while 
some  of  the  great  towns  of  the  South  were 
left  actually  to  engage  in  private  war. 

Elizabeth  in  her  reign,  and  Cromwell  in 
his  protectorate,  entered  afresh  on  wars  of 
conquest  and  confiscation  ;  the  later,  known 
as  the  Cromwellian  Settlement,  exceeded  all 
its  predecessors  in  the  amount  and  extent  of 
the  desolation  which  followed.  Five  sixths 
of  the  people  perished  or  emigrated.  Those 
who  remained  fought  with  exasperation, 
when  they  had  strength  to  fight,  or  by 
secret  organization  sought  revenge  by  assas- 
sination and  fire.  The  landlords  of  the 
present  day,  whose  names  have  become 
familiar  through  tales  of  recent  evictions 
and  present  state  of  siege,  hold  their  titles 
by  a  chain  welded  through  centuries  on 
these  anvils  of  conquest  and  confiscation. 
The  Ponsonby  estate  at  Youghall,  Cork 
County,  illustrates  this.  The  section  of 
country  now  included  in  the  counties  of 
Waterford  and  Cork  was  part  of  a  grant 
given  by  Elizabeth  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh: 


Landlordism.  47 

the  house  where  he  lived,  the  yew-trees 
under  which  he  smoked  Indian  tobacco 
(much  to  the  terror  of  his  servant)  are  still 
to  be  seen  and  are  often  visited  by  the  tour- 
ist. From  this  proud  knight  of  the  Virgin 
Queen  the  land  passed  to  the  great  Earl 
of  Cork,  and  from  him  to  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  owner,  Charles  William  Talbot 
Ponsonby. 

It  is  recorded  that  England's  first  con- 
quest  of  Ireland  was  at  the  instigation  of 
Pope  Adrian  iv,  who,  in  pursuance  of  the 
theory  of  Christian  sovereignty  encouraged 
by  Rome,  claimed  that  "  all  lands  upon 
which  the  Gospel  of  Christ  had  dawned  did 
of  right  belong  to  the  holy  Roman  Church." 
Henry  11,  not  adverse  to  conquest  for  its 
own  sake,  availed  himself  of  this  added 
authority,  and  waged  his  wars  in  the  name 
of  the  faith. 

When,  however,  England  at  the  Refor- 
mation became  Protestant,  Ireland  still 
adhered  to  Rome,  and  the  struggle  to  main- 
tain English  dominance  was  aided  by  the 
mockery  of  religious  propaganda.  The 
slaughter    of    Catholics    by    the    sword,    or 


48  Landlordism, 

by  inhumanities  too  revolting  to  narrate, 
marked  the  early  stages  of  this  prosecution ; 
later,  when  humanity  sickened  with  the 
sight  of  these  rivers  of  human  gore,  more 
indirect  and  refined  processes  of  extermina- 
tion were  applied.  Hallam  says  of  these: 
"  To  have  exterminated  the  Catholics  by  the 
sword,  or  expelled  them  like  the  Moriscos  of 
Spain,  would  have  been  little  more  repug- 
nant to  justice  and  humanity,  but  incompar- 
ably more  politic/'  Numberless  disabilities, 
educational  and  industrial,  were  laid  upon 
Catholics.  Queen  Anne  banished  from  Ire- 
land all  Catholic  teachers  and  sentenced 
them  to  death  in  case  of  return.  Because 
wealthy  persons  evaded  this  law  by  sending 
their  children  to  the  schools  of  the  Conti- 
nent this  was  forbidden  under  pain  of  for- 
feiture of  lands  to  the  Crown.  A  priest,  on 
pain  of  death,  could  not  marry  a  Catholic  to 
a  Protestant.  A  Protestant  woman  who 
should  marry  a  Catholic  forfeited  her  estate 
to  the  next  Protestant  heir-at-law.  Catho- 
lics were  excluded  from  the  liberal  profes- 
sions, except  that  of  medicine.  They  could 
not  until  the  year  1782,  acquire  landed  prop- 


Landlordism.  49 

erty.  They  were  disfranchised  until  1793. 
They  were  ineligible  to  Parliament  until  the 
year  1829.  It  would  be  impossible  to  set 
forth  the  magnitude  of  this  oppression  or  to 
detail  its  pettiness.  It  was  met  in  old  times 
by  persecution  of  the  same  spirit,  though 
not  to  the  same  extent,  by  Catholic  out- 
rages on  Protestants,  but  these  are  now 
unknown ;  in  fact  the  Catholic  municipal 
towns  are  constantly  electing  Protestants  to 
the  mayoralty  and  town  council,  although 
the  converse  is  rarely  true. 

The  Government  has  been  behind  Protest- 
antism ;  retaliation,  revenge  and  bigotry  have 
been  the  only  intrenchments  from  which 
Catholicism  could  wage  its  battles. 

These  ever-present  animosities  have  con- 
tinually hardened  the  heart  of  the  Protestant 
landlord  and  embittered  the  feelings  of  the 
Catholic  tenant.  Definite  and  general  at- 
tempts to  exterminate  the  Irish  race  or  to 
drive  them  from  the  larger  and  better  por- 
tions of  the  country  and  to  substitute  an 
English  and  Scotch  peasantry,  with  English 
laws,  English  customs  and  English  tenures, 
were  adopted  as  a  settled  policy  in  the  reign 


5<D  Landlordism. 

of  Elizabeth.  Up  to  that  time  an  actual  pos- 
session of  the  land  had  satisfied  the  hungry- 
invader;  he  was  willing  it  should  be  tilled 
by  those  of  the  native  Irish  whose  broken 
spirit  and  abject  condition  made  them  more 
or  less  submissive  to  the  conquerors.  But 
English  colonists  living  in  detached  sections 
of  the  country  soon  found  themselves  unable 
to  maintain  possession  under  the  continual 
menace  of  the  wandering  Irish,  who  hid  in 
the  mountains  and  still  rallied  to  the  call  of 
their  chiefs.  The  only  alternative  was  to 
exterminate  by  famine,  fire  and  sword  these 
dangerous  people. 

The  story  of  this  process  of  extermination 
is  simply  horrible. 

While  Shakespeare  and  Spenser  were  mak- 
ing memorable  the  literature  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan era,  England's  soldiers  were  filling 
Ireland  with  "carcasses  and  ashes." 

In  1576  one  Malby,  the  President  of  Con- 
naught,  made  the  following  official  report:  — 

"  At  Christmas  I  marched  into  their  ter- 
ritory [Shan  Burke's]  and,  finding  courteous 
dealing  with  them  had  like  to  have  cut 
my  throat,  I  thought  good  to  take  another 


Landlordism.  5 1 

course,  and  so,  with  determination  to  con- 
sume them  with  fire  and  sword,  sparing 
neither  old  nor  young,  I  entered  their  mount- 
ains. I  burnt  all  their  corn  and  houses,  and 
committed  to  the  sword  all  that  could  be 
found,  when  were  slain  at  that  time  above 
sixty  of  their  best  men,  and  among  them 
the  best  leaders  they  had.  This  was  Shan 
Burke's  country.  Then  I  burnt  Ulick  Burke's 
country.  In  like  manner  I  assaulted  a  cas- 
tle, when  the  garrison  surrendered.  I  put 
them  to  the  misericordia  of  my  soldiers. 
They  were  all  slain.  Thence  I  went  on, 
sparing  none  which  came  in  my  way,  which 
cruelty  did  so  amaze  their  followers  that  they 
could  not  tell  where  to  bestow  themselves. 
It  was  all  done  in  rain  and  frost  and  storm, 
journeys  in  such  weather  bringing  them  the 
sooner  to  submission.  Thev  are  humble 
enough  now,  and  will  yield  to  any  terms  we 
like  to  offer  them." 

Is  it  strange  that  the  descendants  of 
these  men,  thus  persecuted,  who  have  passed 
the  story  down  from  father  to  son,  should 
hate  the  name  of  England ;  is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  peasant  who  through  fire  and  sword 


5 2  Landlordism. 

and  famine  has  kept  the  holding  of  his 
fathers,  should  to  the  very  death  resist  the 
writ  of  eviction  and  the  armed  force  that 
executes  it  ? 

A  quarter  of  a  century  later  the  Lord 
Deputy  writes :  "  I  have  often  said  and  writ- 
ten it  is  famine  that  must  consume  the  Irish, 
as  our  swords  and  other  endeavors  worked 
not  that  speedy  effect  which  is  expected. 
Hunger  would  be  a  better,  because  a  speedier, 
weapon  to  employ  against  them  than  the 
sword.  I  burned  all  along  the  lough  within 
four  miles  of  Dungannon  and  killed  one  hun- 
dred people,  sparing  none,  of  what  quality, 
age  or  sex  soever,  besides  many  burned  to 
death.  We  killed  man,  woman  and  child, 
horse,  beast  and  whatever  we  could  find." 
While  the  echo  of  these  terrible  words  still 
lingers,  hear  the  cold  irony,  the  heartless 
comment  of  the  English  aristocrat  who  says, 
"  These  Irish  are  a  discontented,  disorderly 
people  ;  they  are  never  satisfied  !  "  But  to 
his  haughty  highness  there  comes  the  thun- 
dering answer  of  the  English  democracy: 
11  By  our  help  he  shall  be  satisfied ;  he  shall 
possess  the  soil  he  has  tilled ;  he  shall  build 


Landlordism.  53 

a  state  and  govern  it  himself.  Christian 
civilization  answers,  it  ought  so  to  be." 

More  potential  in  producing  hostile  rela- 
tions and  distressing  conditions  than  origin 
of  title  or  race  and  creed  animosities  is  land- 
lord absenteeism,  which  has  always  been  an 
agent  of  evil  in  Ireland.  Underneath  all 
differences  of  race  or  creed  or  accidents  of 
birth  there  exists  the  common  human  tie 
which,  without  active  volition  on  the  part  of 
either  landlord  or  tenant,  would  have  bound 
their  common  interests. 

As  dew-drops  on  the  cup  of  the  lily  and 
the  leaf  of  the  wayside  weed  mingle  when 
drawn  by  the  sun  to  the  hanging  cloud  and 
return  to  the  earth  in  blessing,  so  these 
human  lives  if  brought  within  certain  radii 
of  influence  would  have  generated  through 
the  operation  of  involuntary  laws  certain  cen- 
tripetal and  centrifugal  forces  which  would 
have  held  the  solar  social  system  in  har- 
monious operation.  But  the  landlord  was 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  system.  Humani- 
tarian laws  had  no  chance  to  do  their  amelio- 
rating work. 

He  does  not  care  for  Ireland.     He  values 


54  Landlordism. 

property  there  merely  as  it  enables  present 
tenants  to  pay  present  rents.  He  does  not 
live  there,  nor  spend  his  money  there.  When 
the  Irish  tenant  in  summer  is  toiling  at 
ploughing  and  sowing,  mowing  and  reaping, 
or  ditching  and  draining,  the  landlord  is  in 
the  mountains  of  Switzerland  or  at  a  Conti- 
nental watering  place. 

When  the  tenant  in  winter  —  his  little 
crop  gathered,  his  few  potatoes  dug  —  is 
driven  by  snow  and  ice  under  his  thatched 
roof  and  within  his  little  hut,  and  when  he 
and  his  family,  and  perhaps  the  faithful 
donkey,  his  beast  of  burden,  make  common 
cause  in  seeking  warmth  from  the  glowing 
peat  upon  the  hearth,  the  landlord  is  in 
Paris  or  in  London  spending  the  money 
gathered  by  his  resident  agent  from  these 
poor  people.  Even  the  few  resident  land- 
lords do  not  make  common  cause  with  the 
people.  They  live  in  castles,  within  wooded 
domains,  surrounded  by  high  walls.  These 
homes  are  furnished  with  great  luxury,  but 
not  as  Irish  growth.  The  carpets,  the  furni- 
ture, the  pictures,  the  books,  the  wardrobe, 
the  tailor,  the    dressmaker,  the    bootmaker, 


Landlordism.  55 

the  milliner  —  these  are  French  or  English, 
almost  never  Irish.  Even  family  servants 
are  often  brought  from  beyond  the  channels. 

The  money  actually  taken  out  of  the 
country  by  this  absenteeism  is  enormous. 
It  is  estimated  to  be  at  present  about  six 
million  pounds  per  annum.  Think  what 
this  would  do  in  internal  improvements,  in 
industrial  or  mercantile  investment !  The 
number  of  absentees  at  the  present  time  is 
estimated  to  be  nearly  eight  thousand. 

If  the  individual  energy  of  these  men 
owninof    more    than  one  half  of    the   arable 

o 

land  of  Ireland  were  applied  in  public  enter- 
prises, what  an  impetus  would  be  given  its 
material  prosperity.  If  the  personal  moral 
influence  of  these  gentlemen  of  education 
and  leisure  were  felt  in  educational  and  phil- 
anthropic culture,  how  much  more  elevated 
might  the  social  tone  become. 

Absenteeism  has  always  ■  been  Ireland's 
curse.  The  early  kings  desired  to  prevent  it 
by  compulsory  legislation.  Residence  was 
required  for  certain  periods  in  each  year,  and 
increased  taxes  were  required  of  absentees. 
These  coercive  measures  were  of  little  effect 


5  6  Landlordism. 

beyond  that  of  collecting  a  few  pounds  rev- 
enue, and  the  whole  attempted  remedy  was 
a  legislative  farce. 

It  is  significant  that  rack-renting  and 
evictions  have,  with  a  few  exceptions,  been 
most  common  and  distressing  on  the  estates 
of  absentees. 

Mr.  Froude,  who  is  not  by  any  means  an 
Irish  partisan,  says  of  this  unnatural  system 
under  which  Ireland  has  long  groaned:  — 

"  The  absentee  landlords  of  Ireland  had 
neither  community  of  interest  with  the  peo- 
ple nor  sympathy  of  race.  They  had  no 
fear  of  provoking  their  resentment,  for  they 
lived  beyond  their  reach.  They  had  no  de- 
sire for  their  welfare,  for  as  individuals  they 
were  ignorant  of  their  existence.  They  re- 
garded their  Irish  estates  as  the  sources  of 
their  income;  their  only  desire  was  to  extract 
the  most  out  of  them  which  the  soil  could 
be  made  to  yield ;  and  they  cared  no  more 
for  the  souls  and  the  bodies  of  those  who 
were  in  fact  committed  to  their  charge  than 
the  owners  of  a  West  Indian  plantation  for 
the  herds  of  slaves  whose  backs  were  blister- 
ing in  the  cane  fields." 


Landlordism.  57 

Out  of  these  confiscations,  animosities  and 
absenteeisms,  has  grown  up  by  custom  and 
English  law  a  landlord  and  tenant  code, 
wholly  differing  in  spirit,  indeed,  a  complete 
inversion  of  that  which  prevails  elsewhere. 
Improvements,  such  as  dwelling  houses,  farm 
buildings,  fences,  draining  and  the  like,  are  in 
England  and  America  built  by  the  land- 
lord; there  is  also  an  implied  covenant 
that  these  betterments  shall  be  kept  in 
needed  repair  at  his  expense ;  shall  be 
replaced  by  him  if  burned  or  otherwise 
destroyed. 

In  Ireland  the  tenant  makes  all  improve- 
ments ;  the  landlord  does  nothing.  The 
tenant  builds  at  his  own  cost,  and  keeps 
in  repair  the  dwelling,  the  outhouses,  the 
fences,  etc. 

This  has  been  the  custom  since  the 
times  of  confiscation,  when  the  lands  were 
given  to  Englishmen  who,  rather  than  live 
in  Ireland  and  care  for  the  booty  given  by  a 
conquering  invader,  left  the  estates  in  pos- 
session of  native  Irish  peasants,  being  satis- 
fied to  obtain  what  income  they  could  from 
that  which  cost  them  nothing. 


58  La7tdlordism. 

As  the  tenant,  impelled  by  the  necessities 
of  existence,  improved  the  farm  from  time 
to  time,  the  rent  was  raised  proportionately. 
It  is  admitted  by  all  intelligent  judges  that 
landlords  in  Ireland  receive  greater  rent  for 
farms  improved  by  tenants  than  English  and 
Scotch  landlords  receive  for  farms  improved 
by  themselves. 

The  landlords  of  Ireland  have  received 
more  actual  rent  money  for  the  last  ten  years 
than  the  value  of  the  amount  of  produce 
raised  off  the  land.  The  children  and  other 
relatives  in  America  have  sent  large  sums 
to  the  old  folks  at  home  to  pay  the  landlord's 
claim,  and  the  father  and  sons  of  the  family 
have  worked  in  the  mines  or  other  indus- 
tries of  England  and  Wales  and  earned  the 
money  to  pay  for  the  poor  shelter  of  the  little 
holding. 

Not  only  does  the  Irish  landlord  receive 
unconscionable  rents,  but  is  aided  by  special 
legislation  in  collecting  it ;  he  may  evict  his 
tenant  for  non-payment  by  a  summary  pro- 
ceeding peculiar  to  the  Irish  system.  He  is 
further  aided  by  a  penal  code  with  provisions 
framed  for  his  special  benefit ;  he  may  with- 


L  a  ndlordism.  5  9 

out  the  intervention  of  any  court  call  to  his 
assistance  officers  of  the  Crown,  armed  con- 
stabulary, and  even  Her  Majesty's  regular 
troops.  Such  is  Irish  landlordism ;  base 
and  wicked  in  inception,  oppressive  and 
merciless  in  continuance,  murderous  in 
results. 


CHAPTER   V. 


POLITICAL    DESPOTISM. 


POLITICAL  despotism  is  the  great  con- 
spirator in  the  crime  against  Ireland. 
It  stands  indicted  with  landlordism,  oppres- 
sive taxation,  industrial  death,  religious  per- 
secution, chronic  insurrection,  and  is  itself 
the  assassin  of  constitutional  liberty. 

England's  early  supremacy  in  Ireland  was 
sustained  by  force.  She  employed  the  sword, 
fire,  famine  and  common  butchery.  She 
drove  the  native  Irish  into  the  most  sterile 
parts  of  the  country,  and  kept  them  there 
on  pain  of  death.  "  To  Hell  or  Con  naught ' 
was  the  shibboleth  of  that  barbaric  age. 

The  beautiful  Shannon,  in  its  circling 
course  to  the  sea,  became  a  dead-line  to  the 
fugitives.  When  the  thirst  for  conquest  had 
been  assuaged  by  surfeit  of  slaughter,  and 
the  people  of  England  had  secured  for  them- 
selves   more    clearly    defined    constitutional 

60 


Political  Despotism,  61 

powers,  the  form  of  despotism  in  Ireland 
changed.  There  was  not  less  despotism ; 
its  modes  were  more  refined,  though  not 
less  oppressive.  The  philanthropic  endeav- 
ors of  friends  of  Ireland  in  the  British  Par- 
liament did  from  time  to  time  attempt 
remedial  legislation  of  tenant  wrongs ;  but 
despotism  personified  in  landed  aristocracy 
usually  strangled  these  attempts.  Very  few 
of  the  many  bills  introduced  ever  become 
laws.  Between  the  tenant  and  needed  relief 
appeared  the  ever-present  intervener.  The 
land  bills  recently  enacted,  presumably  in 
the  interest  of  the  tenant,  contain  provisions 
somewhat  equitable ;  but  it  is  not  every  one 
who  can  comply  with  their  conditions  and 
is  able  to  bear  the  expense  of  the  land 
court ;  thus  the  larger  number  of  those  most 
needing  relief  are  unable  to  secure  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  bills.  A  commission  was 
instituted  to  sit  as  a  court  and  to  fix  a  "judi- 
cial rent." 

This  commission  was  appointed  by  Dublin 
Castle,  and  is  said  to  have  been  largely  made 
up  of  its  political  partisans,  the  landlord 
class  or  their  dependents.     It  soon  appeared 


62  Political  Despotism. 

that  the  administration  of  the  law  was  in 
the  interest  of  the  landlord,  not  of  the 
tenant.  The  commission  made  its  reduc- 
tions on  the  basis  of  the  clearly  proved  esti- 
mate that  the  land  had  not  produced  even 
in  £ood  times  the  value  of  the  old  rents. 
These  rents  had  been  met  mainly  by  moneys 
received  from  Irish  emigrants  in  America. 
Lord  Dufferin  states  that  sum  to  have  been 
upward  of  thirteen  million  pounds  between 
the  years  1848  and  1864. 

During  recent  years  remittances  directly 
to  tenants  for  the  payment  of  rent  have 
largely  decreased.  A  more  intelligent  and 
effective  means  of  aiding;  the  Irish  cause  than 
supporting  English  landlords  by  the  payment 
of  exorbitant  rents  has  been  devised. 

An  illustration  of  this,  and  of  the  devotion 
of  Irish  children  to  the  old  folks  at  home, 
recently  came  to  our  knowledge.  A  lad  left 
County  Cork  for  Boston  ten  years  ago.  He 
worked  at  his  trade  —  harness-making  —  and 
regularly  sent  to  his  father  for  rent  money 
twenty  pounds  a  year.  On  a  recent  visit 
to  the  place  of  his  birth  he  found  the  old 
man  in  the  same  wretched  hut,  in  poverty 


Political  Despotism.  63 

and  rags.  Every  shilling  of  the  two  hun- 
dred pounds  he  had  sent  had  gone  into  the 
landlord's  coffers.  With  an  oath,  registered 
in  the  just  court  of  heaven,  he  said:  "  Father, 
I'll  take  care  of  you,  but  the  landlords  of 
Ireland  shall  never  have  another  dollar  of 
my  hard  earnings."  There  was  one  more 
eviction,  and  then  the  old  man  went  with 
his  sturdy  son  to  America.  This  failure  of 
supplies  from  America,  and  the  universal 
decrease  in  agricultural  values,  combined  at 
the  same  time  to  render  tenants  even  more 
unable  to  pay  the  reduced  rent  than  they 
had  been  to  satisfy  the  former  more  exorbi- 
tant demand  of  the  landlord.  Of  many  a 
tenant  might  it  be  said,  "the  last  state  of  that 
man  was  worse  than  the  first."  The  land 
bill  of  the  year  1887  has  as  yet  (January, 
1S88)  made  no  record;  from  it  the  tenant 
hopes  little,  because  the  commission,  already 
appointed,  originated  from  and  is  responsible 
to  Dublin  Castle.  Evictions  are  still  the 
order  of  the  day,  and  the  tenant's  "holding" 
is  as  precarious  as  ever.  There  is  a  signifi- 
cance almost  pathetic  in  the  term  denoting 
a  tenant's  occupancy. 


64  Political  Despotism. 

It  is  not  his  "farm,"  his  "estate,"  his 
"place,"  his  "ranch,"  it  is  his  "holding." 
He  does  not  take  root  as  does  the  tree  or 
garden  shrub ;  he  "  holds  "  like  an  ivy  to  the 
wall,  a  lichen  to  the  rock ;  he  clings  as  do 
these  prolific  natives  of  his  Emerald  Isle. 

An  Irishman's  love  of  hearth  and  home 
and  country  is  the  strongest  passion  of  his 
nature ;  the  landlord  has  traded  upon  it. 

It  is  told  of  one  of  these,  a  poor  old  fel- 
low, who  had  reared  a  large  family  upon  a 
little  patch,  and  was  reduced  to  turnips  and 
salt  as  their  onlv  food,  that  when  urcred  to 
send  his  oldest  sons  to  America,  "with  the 
prospect  of  soon  following  himself  when 
better  times  came  to  them,  he  answered 
with  spirit,  "  No  ;  I'll  never  go  ;  isn't  this 
my  home;  wasn't  I  born  here  and  my  fathers 
before  me  ?  Ill  eat  turnips  while  I  have 
them,  and  then  I'll  live  on  the  flower  of 
the  furze  ;  but  111  never  leave  :  I'll  die  here 
as  my  fathers  did."  This  man  had  only 
a  "  holding,"  for  which  he  paid  an  annual 
rental  of  over  a  pound  an  acre ;  he  and  his 
fathers  had  wrested  from  the  soil  and  gath- 
ered by  labor  in  other  places  this  tribute  to 


Political  Despotism.  65 

the  landlord's  greed;  but  they  had  no  deed 
or  lease,  only  a  "  holding." 

A  German  publicist,  endeavoring  to  find 
a  word  in  his  own  tongue  to  express  the 
peculiar  disabilities  of  the  Irish  tenant-at- 
will  on  his  holding,  said,  "  Why  not  call  him 
4  the  hunt-off-able  ?  '  (Wegjagdbau.)  This 
tenant  in  America  miq*ht  claim  the  rights 
of  a  squatter  sovereign;  in  Ireland  he  is 
the  victim  of  squatter  serfdom.  The  inten- 
tion of  Parliament  in  the  recent  land  bills 
was  doubtless  good,  though  weakened  by 
the  administration  of  Dublin  Castle,  and 
further  compromised  by  contemporaneous 
coercion  acts.  While  the  tenant  is  beins: 
invited  to  Dublin  Castle  Land  Court  from 
Dublin  Castle  issues  proclamation  after  proc- 
lamation assailing  the  right  of  free  speech 
and  public  meeting,  and  summons  after 
summons  of  arrest  of  Irish  patriots.  It 
denies  to  these  the  constitutional  riefht  of 
trial  by  jury,  and  by  summary  proceedings 
consigns  them  to  the  felon's  cell. 

While  with  one  hand  it  offers  the  olive 
branch  of  a  doubtful  land  bill,  with  the  right 
hand  of  its  power  it  arms  fourteen  thousand 


66  Political  Despotism. 

constabulary  to  assist  the  landlord  in  evict- 
ions for  non-payment  of  arrears  impossible 
to  meet.  As  they  "  remember  Mitchels- 
town  "  (according  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  appeal) 
their  dimmed  eyes  can  scarcely  see  the  olive 
branch.  The  presence  of  an  armed  con- 
stabulary is  a  constant  reminder  that  they 
are  subjects  of  a  foreign  Government,  in 
spirit  if  not  in  fact ;  this  becomes  the  more 
exasperating  when  they  find  out  that  they 
are  taxed  an  enormous  sum  to  support  this 
constabulary,  whose  chief  service  is  to  en- 
force the  claims  of  absent  English  land- 
lords. 

In  a  certain  area  of  less  than  ten  miles 
square,  in  a  quiet  section  of  the  country  con- 
taining less  than  ten  thousand  people,  this 
expense  to  the  rate  payers  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  is  over  sixty  thousand  pounds 
per  year.  England  should  remember  that 
one  of  the  grievances  which  caused  her  the 
loss  of  the  American  colonies  was  that  she 
quartered  soldiers  upon  the  people  in  time  of 
peace.  Is  it  likely  that  her  subjects  a  cent- 
ury later  will  bear  without  aggressive  pro- 
test this  quarterage   upon   their   rent  rolls  ? 


Political  Despotism.  67 

The  political  despotism  of  the  present  will 
do  well  to  steer  clear  of  these  landmarks  of 
history. 

Two  centuries  aor>  Ireland's  wool  and 
linen  manufactories  formed  no  inconsider- 
able part  of  her  resources.  These,  with 
exports  of  cattle  and  sheep,  threatened  ma- 
terially to  compete  with  like  industries  in  the 
English  market.  Here  again  political  des- 
potism becomes  an  intervener  in  the  inter- 
est of  English  capitalists  and  against  Irish 
subjects.  By  definite  and  sweeping  acts  of 
Parliament  in  restraint  of  Irish  trade  and 
commerce  the  growing  industries  of  Ireland 
were  destroyed. 

Not  only  did  despotism  make  itself  felt  in 
materialities,  it  sought  to  lay  an  embargo  on 
the  consciences  of  men.  Civil  and  political 
disabilities  were  laid  upon  Catholics,  and 
religious  persecution  even  unto  death  was 
authorized  under  forms  of  law.  Not  till  the 
time  of  the  present  generation  has  there 
been  the  same  toleration  of  religious  opin- 
ion in  Ireland  as  in  England.  That  Ireland 
has  been  for  many  years  in  a  state  of 
chronic  insurrection  cannot  be  denied.     The 


68  Political  Despotism. 

massacres  of  1641  and  of  1798  stain  the 
page  of  history;  the  record  of  young  Ire- 
land, of  Phcenix  Clubs,  of  Fenian  raids,  of 
Land  Leagues  are  inseparably  interwoven 
in  the  history  of  the  country.  The  careful 
student  can  not,  however,  fail  to  discover 
that  these  movements  were  the  results  of 
pre-existing  conditions ;  they  were  not  the 
cause  of  those  conditions.  Whenever  the 
work  of  secret  organizations  matured  in 
breaches  of  the  peace  there  had  been  im- 
mediate or  proximate  assaults,  real  or  sup- 
posed, from  a  despotic  government. 

The  British  Government  has  seemed  blind 
to  the  political  truth,  that  free  discussion 
and  untrammeled  organization  for  redress  of 
grievances  are  the  necessary  safety  valves 
of  public  order.  By  repressive  and  despotic 
class  legislation  it  has  become  particeps 
criminis  in  numerous  social  outbreaks,  until 
now  by  the  grim  irony  of  retributive  justice 
England  finds  the  path  of  her  own  progress 
impeded  by  a  mass  of  rubbish,  accumulated 
from  the  injustice  of  centuries,  and  is  obliged 
to  set  herself  to  a  careful  consideration  of 
the  equities  in  Ireland's  cause. 


Political  Despotism.  69 

Her  House  of  Commons  sat  for  months 
in  controversy  over  the  details  of  coercion 
measures  to  the  utter  suspension  of  Imperial 
legislation.  England,  Scotland  and  Wales  in 
the  name  of  their  neglected  interests  protest; 
protesting  for  themselves  and  for  their  own 
interests,  they  have  come  to  study  the  whole 
question  from  the  broad  plane  of  philan- 
thropic statesmanship.  The  realization  comes 
with  force  to  many  of  their  clearest  thinkers, 
that  the  present  Tory  Government  by  its 
coercive  policy  in  Ireland  is  establishing  a 
precedent  of  violence  to  constitutional  rights, 
as  threatening  to  English  liberty  in  the  future 
as  it  is  outrageous  and  insulting  to  Irish 
Nationalism  by  its  recent  exercise  in  the 
trial  and  conviction  of  William  O'Brien. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  believe  Christian 
England  knowingly  guilty  of  Irish  outrages 
in  legislation  and  administration,  except  by 
considering  the  nation  as  consisting  of  two 
independent  and  sometimes  antagonistic  ele- 
ments—  the  English  people  and  the  English 
Government. 

The  English  people  are  true  to  the  com- 
mon  instincts  of   humanity;   they  love   jus- 


jo  Political  Despotism. 

tice,  they  mean  to  do  equity  ;  but  they  them- 
selves have  not  been  long  self-governed,  and 
have  been  absorbed  in  reform  measures  per- 
taining to  their  own  economic  grievances. 
The  extension  of  the  franchise  to  its  present 
limits  is  very  recent,  and  is  still  much  incum- 
bered. The  spirit  of  aristocracy  is  the  same 
everywhere  ;  it  has  been  bridled  in  England  ; 
it  has  taken  the  bit  in  its  teeth  in  Ireland. 
The  masses  of  the  people  who  now  rise 
under  the  majestic  name  —  English  Democ- 
racy—  have  only  lately  had  power  to  mate- 
rially influence  governmental  policy;  they 
have  known  little  of  that  policy  in  the  sister 
country,  from  which  they  were  separated  by 
stormy  channels,  and  by  difference  of  race 
and  creed.  The  English  Government,  as 
distinguished  from  the  English  people,  has 
been  obliged  to  sustain  its  policy  of  conquest 
by  further  acts  of  confiscation  and  coercion, 
or  to  retire  from  the  possession  of  the  island, 
or  to  give  to  the  people  some  such  form  of 
independent  local  government  as  is  outlined 
in  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home  Rule  measure. 
The  Tory  Government,  on  its  own  account 
and  for  its  own  peace,  would  doubtless  set 


Political  Despotism.  71 

the  island  adrift ;  but  the  integrity  of  the 
Empire  would  not  allow  that ;  it  hesitates  to 
give  a  local  government  with  greater  powers 
than  England,  Scotland  and  Wales  possess 
or  ask  ;  it  talks  in  grandiloquent  phrase  about 
the  "  integrity  of  the  Empire  '  being  endan- 
gered by  Ireland's  demands,  and  fills  the  air 
with  vaporous  fears  of  intestine  strifes  and 
disgraceful  misrule  if  England's  protection  (?) 
in  minutest  detail  should  be  removed. 

What  course,  then,  does  the  Government 
pursue  ?  Just  what  all  falling  despotisms  in 
government  compel :  It  assumes  the  names 
and  forms  of  constitutional  government ;  its 
"  Irish  members  "  sit  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, but  are  powerless  to  secure  legislation 
in  the  interest  of  their  own  constituents  ;  it 
claims  to  administer  justice  according  to 
English  law,  but  its  courts  in  Ireland  exer- 
cise judicial  functions  under  special  acts  of 
Parliament  against  which  Englishmen  wrould 
have  rebelled.  Meanwhile,  the  people  of 
England,  in  the  exercise  of  new  powers  and 
bv  attrition  with  democracies  elsewhere,  de- 
mand  more  for  themselves  and  are  keener 
to  see  the  rightfulness  of  Ireland's  claim  and 


72  Political  Despotism. 

to  recognize  her  cause  as  kindred  to  their 
own.  English  Liberals  and  Irish  Parnelites, 
under  the  great  statesman  Gladstone,  will 
ultimately  secure  not  only  Home  Rule  for 
Ireland,  but  a  triumphant  democracy  wher- 
ever the  British  flag  floats. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

INDUSTRIAL    DESPOTISM. 

WHAT  shall  we  eat,  what  shall  we 
drink  and  wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed  ?  is  a  universal  question ;  the  char- 
acter of  the  answer  given  is  the  test  of  the 
civilization  of  any  age  or  country.  Ireland's 
desolation  appears  in  the  answer  which  she 
gives.  Potatoes,  whiskey,  rags ;  these  are 
the  ensign  of  her  woe.  An  intelligent  co- 
operation with  Providence,  in  soil,  climate 
and  natural  resource,  guarantees  the  neces- 
sary provision  for  human  needs.  The  igno- 
rant or  spiritless  co-operation  by  the  Irish 
people,  the  forcible  repression  or  prohibi- 
tion of  co-operation  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment, these  causes,  singly  or  in  unison, 
have  thwarted  the  benign  designs  of  the 
"  Heavenly  Father,  who  knoweth  that  his 
children  have  need  of  these  things." 

That  we  may  the  better  understand  Eng- 
land's industrial  and  commercial  legislation 

73 


74  Industrial  Despotism. 

concerning  Ireland,  and  know  the  causes 
which  directly  or  indirectly  operated  to 
almost  wholly  extinguish  the  industries  of 
Ireland,  we  will  divide  the  last  four  hundred 
years  into  four  periods,  these  being  marked 
by  distinctive  legislative  policies.  Credulity 
will  be  taxed  in  receiving  the  attested  facts 
of  history,  and  philanthropy  will  be  pained 
at  their  illustration  of  "man's  inhumanity 
to  man  "  underneath  this  cloak  of  so-called 
commercial  legislation. 

First  Period — Industrial  Growth.  From 
Poyning's  Law,  1495,  to  Amended  Naviga- 
tion Act,  1663. 

Second  Period — Industrial  Decay  and 
Death.  From  1663  to  the  Independent 
Irish  Parliament,  known  as  Grattan's  Parlia- 
ment, 1782. 

Third  Period — Industrial  Resurrection. 
From   1782  to  the  Union,  1800. 

Fourth  Period —  Industrial  Decline.  From 
1800  to  the  present  time. 

First  period —  1495  to  1663.  During  this 
period  English  and  Irish  industries  grew 
side  by  side,  both  stimulated  by  natural 
resources   and   growing   demands/  and  both 


Industrial  Despotism,  75 

equally  protected  from  the  free  imports  of 
other  nations.  Her  chief  industries  were 
woollen  (fustian,  flannels,  broadcloths),  linen, 
silk,  hemp,  sugar,  hides  and  leather,  soap, 
candles  and  salt.  Cattle,  sheep  and  horses 
were  largely  exported.  In  this  even-handed 
industrial  race  Ireland  well  held  her  own, 
and  threatened  to  seriously  compete  with 
the  wealth  and  commercial  enterprise  of 
England. 

Second  Period — 1663  to  1782.  In  the 
amended  Navigation  Act  of  1663  Ireland 
was  left  out.  Lord  North  said  of  it :  "  The 
first  commercial  restriction  was  laid  on  Ire- 
land not  directly,  but  by  a  side  wind  and  by 
deductive  interpretation."  The  prohibitions 
of  this  act  were  not,  however,  left  to  "  deduc- 
tive interpretation."  The  act  prohibited  all 
exports  from  Ireland  to  the  colonies,  and 
the  importation  of  Irish  cattle  into  England. 
Subsequently  an  act  declared  such  importa- 
tion to  be  "a  publick  and  common  nuisance." 
In  1670  all  importation  to  Ireland  from  the 
English  plantations  of  sugar,  tobacco,  cot- 
ton-wool, indigo,  ginger,  fustic  or  other  native 
dyeing  wood  was  prohibited. 


J 6  Industrial  Despotism. 

The  energy  driven  back  from  trade  sought 
exercise  in  cultivation  of  manufactures.  For- 
bidden to  export  live  cattle  into  England, 
they  were  killed  and  sent  over  as  salted 
meats.  An  Act  of  Parliament  soon  pro- 
hibited this.  The  hides  of  the  animals  be- 
ing still  free,  these  were  exported  until  — 
still  suspicious  and  watchful  —  British  dealers 
complained,  and  these  were  headed  back  to 
the  hills  where  they  were  grown.  Irish  in- 
genuity, still  contending  for  an  outlet,  worked 
up  the  hides  into  leather  and  thus  bade  fair 
to  outwit  the  cupidity  of  English  trade. 
Alas !  Parliament  relentlessly  prohibited  the 
exportation  of  leather !  This  procession  of 
prohibitions,  sounding  the  trumpet  of  Eng- 
lish commercial  despotism,  loses  even  the 
pomp  of  power  and  assumes  the  fretful  snarl 
of  conscious  decrepitude  when  we  learn  that 
candles  were  also  under  the  ban  of  this  riv- 
alry, and  not  an  Irish  "tallow  glim "  could 
find  its  way  across  the  channel.  The  woollen 
and  linen  industries,  because  of  their  natu- 
ral pre-emption  and  early  establishment, 
were  soon  the  objects  of  jealous  assault,  first 
in  the  form  of  disabilities  and  later  in  actual 


Industrial  Despotism.  jj 

prohibitions.  It  was  unblushingly  declared 
that  this  legislation  was  demanded  because 
England's  woollen  manufactures  suffered. 
There  seems  to  have  been  no  sense  of 
moral  obligation  in  the  trade  conscience  of 
that  era,  and  by  an  act  of  William  in  the 
woollen  industry  of  Ireland  was  extinguished, 
and  twenty  thousand  manufacturers  left  the 
island. 

In  this  high-handed  extinction  of  Ireland's 
natural  and  most  productive  manufacture, 
there  was  promised,  in  mitigation  of  damage, 
an  advantage  to  the  linen  industry.  Scotch 
Protestants  were  invited  to  Ireland  under 
the  specious  plea  that  they  should  be 
afforded  every  possible  assistance,  and  that 
Irish  linen  should  be  protected  in  the  exclu- 
sive supply  of  the  British  market.  Lord 
North  says  of  this  compact,  "  it  was  no 
sooner  made  than  it  was  violated  by  Eng- 
land, for,  instead  of  prohibiting  foreign 
linens,  duties  were  laid  and  collected,  so  far 
from  amounting  to  a  prohibition  on  the  im- 
port of  the  Dutch,  German  and  east  country 
linen  manufactures  that  those  manufact- 
ures have  been  able,  after  having  the  duties 


j8  Industrial  Despotism. 

imposed  on  them  by  the  British  Parliament, 
fo  undersell  Ireland  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  West  Indies."  Thus  it  was  that  Ire- 
land's industries  were  pursued  with  relent- 
less pertinacity,  until  the  most  searching 
scrutiny  fails  to  discover  a  single  one  which 
was  not  fettered  or  prohibited  by  British 
Parliamentary  acts,  and  this  hostile  legisla- 
tion not  only  affected  her  relations  with 
England,  but  with  the  commerce  of  the 
world.  The  flag  of  Ireland  might  wave  in 
holiday  splendor  over  the  castles  of  her  con- 
quered princes,  but  was  declared  a  commer- 
cial alien  on  the  high  seas. 

The  reader  of  Irish  history  during  this 
period  will  learn  that  Ireland  had  then  her 
own  Parliament,  and  he  may  inquire  why, 
then,  did  she  hang  as  a  suitor  on  English 
legislation  ;  why  did  she  not  herself  protect 
her  own  industries  ?  why  did  she  not  go 
farther  and  meet  England's  aggressions  with 
retaliatory  measures  ?  Simply  because  she 
could  not.  Her  legislature,  though  a  Par- 
liament in  name,  had  little  representative 
character  or  executive   power. 

It   was    composed    largely    of    Protestant 


Industrial  Despotism.  79 

landlords.  Political  disabilities  imposed  by 
England,  excluded  the  masses  from  repre- 
sentation, and  even  if  it  had  been  otherwise 
and  the  undivided  voice  of  Parliament  had 
sought  industrial  protection  through  Par- 
liamentary acts,  these  acts  would  have  been 
vetoed  by  the  British  Parliament  or  the 
Privy  Council.  "  Poyning's  Act,"  by  which 
the  Irish  Parliament  exercised  its  mock 
functions,  expressly  declared  that  no  act 
should  be  adopted  without  the  approval  of 
the  King  of  England  or  his  Privy  Council. 
In  the  year  1771  the  heads  of  a  bill  were 
introduced  "  to  prevent  corn  from  being 
made  into  whiskey  and  to  put  some  re- 
straint on  the  vice  of  drunkenness,"  which 
was  increasing.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the 
day  said  "  the  whiskey  shops  were  ruining 
the  peasantry  and  the  workmen.  There 
was  an  earnest  and  general  desire  to  limit 
them."  "The  Whiskey  bill,"  says  Mr. 
Froude,  "  was  rejected  because  the  Treasury 
(British)  could  not  spare  a  few  thousand 
pounds  which  were  levied  upon  drunkenness." 
Thus  poor  Ireland,  drunk  to  the  hearth  of 
the   British  revenue,  garroted  by   Poyning's 


80  Industrial  Despotism. 

Act,  robbed  by  Birmingham  and  Manchester, 
was  in  as  deplorable  a  condition  as  the 
"certain  man"  who  journeyed  from  Jerusa- 
lem to  Jericho.  Thank  God !  the  Good 
Samaritan  from  Hawarden  Castle  is  passing 
by. 

Third  Period — 1782  to  1800.  An  Inde- 
pendent Parliament  had  long  been  the  desire 
of  Irish  patriots.  Henry  Grattan  was,  more 
than  any  other,  the  champion  of  this  new 
creation ;  it  bears  his  name.  Ireland  at 
once  opened  her  own  ports  to  such  of  her 
manufactures  as  still  survived.  She  felt 
through  her  whole  commercial  being  the  in- 
spiration of  a  new  life ;  but  she  did  not  at 
once  turn  upon  England  with  retaliatory 
legislation.  She  waited  to  receive  proffers 
of  reciprocal  intercourse.  England  was  slow' 
and  surly,  and  at  last  yielded  grudgingly  some 
slight  compromises.  Then  it  was  that  Ire- 
land, finally  aroused,  commenced  legitimate 
retaliation.  The  marvelous  growth  of  her 
manufactures  and  trade  justified  the  dream 
of  her  patriots  and  the  fear  of  her  enemies. 
Secretary  Foster  said  in  1785,  three  years 
after  the  liberation  of  Irish  industries,  "  Brit- 


Industrial  Despotism.  81 

ain  imports  annually  two  million  five  hundred 
thousand  pounds  of  our  products,  all,  or 
nearly  all,  duty  free,  and  we  import  a  million 
of  hers,  and  raise  a  revenue  on  almost  every 
article  of  it."  In  1 799,  according  to  Mr.  Pitt, 
"  the  imports  from  Great  Britain  were  about 
the  same,  but  the  exports  from  Ireland  to 
Britain  had  swelled  to  nearly  six  millions." 
Lord  Clare,  who  was  not  very  friendly  to 
the  Irish  people,  said,  "  There  is  not  a 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  habitable  globe 
which  had  advanced  in  cultivation,  in  manu- 
factures, with  the  same  rapidity  in  the  same 
period  —  legislative  independence  —  as  Ire- 
land." 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  people  of  this 
country  sit  in  the  midst  of  their  wrecked 
industries,  behold  their  dilapidated  factories, 
their  silent  mills,  and  bless  the  name  of 
Gladstone  and  Home  Rule,  even  as  they 
revere  the  memory  of  Grattan  and  the  days 
of  legislative  independence  ? 

Fourth  Period —  1800  to  the  present.  The 
Legislative  union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land was  effected  in  the  year  1800.  Lecky 
says  of  it :  "  It  is  a  simple  and  unexagger- 


82  Industrial  Despotism. 

ated  statement  of  the  fact  that  in  the  entire 
history  of  representative  government  there 
is  no  instance  of  corruption  having  been 
applied  on  so  large  a  scale  and  with  such 
audacious  effrontery." 

Mr.  John  Foster,  the  Speaker  of  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons,  in  opposing  the  articles 
of  union  which  set  forth  the  commercial 
relations  of  the  two  countries,  said:  "  They 
lower  all  protecting  duties  and  expose  the 
infant  manufactures  of  Ireland  (which  the 
Irish  Parliament  had  begun  to  protect)  to 
the  overwhelming  competition  of  the  great 
capital  and  long-established  skill  and  ability 
of  England.  No  less  than  seventy  articles 
of  our  manufacture  would  be  thus  injured, 
and  our  cotton  manufactures  in  particular,  in 
which  we  had  begun  to  make  most  promising 
advances,  would  be  nearly  ruined."  This 
prophecy  was  fulfilled.  Excepting  only  the 
linen  trade  of  the  North  and  a  few  scattered 
woollen  mills,  there  are  no  industries  in  Ire- 
land. / 

The  policy  long  ago  announced  by  Lord 
Stafford  has  found  ample  operation  under 
the  Union.     "  I  am   of   opinion,"  said    that 


Industrial  Despotism.  83 

lord,  writing  from  Ireland  to  Charles  1  in 
1634,  "that  all  wisdom  advises  to  keep  this 
kingdom  as  much  subordinate  and  depend- 
ent upon  England  as  is  possible,  and  hold- 
ing them  from  the  manufacture  of  wool,  and 
then  enforcing  them  to  fetch  their  clothing 
from  thence,  and  to  take  their  salt  from  the 
king  (being  that  which  preserves  and  gives 
value  to  all  their  native  staple  commodities), 
how  can  they  depart  from  us  without  naked- 
ness and  beggary?" 

From  the  mass  of  England's  tyrannies 
toward  Ireland  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
distinguish  those  which  are  purely  economic, 
those  which  relate  to  racial  and  religious 
intolerance,  and  such  as  are  overt  and  aggres- 
sive acts  of  political  despotism.  The  pall  of 
oppression  is  woven  of  many  threads ;  the 
chain  of  bondage  is  welded  of  many  links. 
Neither  of  these  could  alone  have  crushed 
this  country ;  each  was  a,  bulwark  of  the 
other.  Religious  persecution  could  not  have 
existed  if  through  equal  religious  toleration 
those  of  the  Catholic  faith  had  been  allowed 
to  sit  in  the  British  Parliament.  Neither 
could  England  have  enforced  trade  and  com- 


84  Industrial  Despotism. 

mercial  servitude  among  the  Irish  people  if 
they  had  at  that  time  been  under  Home  Rule. 
These  conditions  of  political  despotism  and 
religious  persecution  so  educated  English 
thought  and  debauched  the  English  con- 
science that  it  was  no  shock  to  her  sense  of 
justice  to  rob  Ireland  of  her  trade  and  com- 
merce. It  was  easy  to  make  of  the  political 
serf  and  the  excommunicated  heretic  a  beg- 
gar  also.  This  England  did.  "  He  that 
breaketh  one  commandment  is  guilty  of 
them  all." 

That  these  economic  relations  may  be 
clearly  understood,  let  us  draw  an  illustra- 
tion from  current  American  economic  life. 

The  energetic  industrial  life  of  the  new 
South  finds  illustration  in  Georgia  cotton 
manufactories  and  Alabama  iron  works. 
These  already  assume  proportions  which 
prophesy  they  will  soon  be  entered  in  the 
competitive  race  with  Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania.  Every  well  wisher  of  his 
country  rejoices  that,  by  this  enlarged  source 
of  supplies,  material  advantage  must  come 
to  the  American  consumer.  The  heart  of 
the  patriot  is  cheered  in  the  contemplation 


Industrial  Despotism.  85 

and  present  realization  of  the  fact  that  trade 
and  commerce,  in  their  manifold  ramifica- 
tions, shall  more  closely  unite  the  North  and 
South  in  social  and  religious  life,  and  educa- 
ional  and  philanthropic  endeavor. 

But  suppose  the  government  at  Washing- 
ton had  the  disposition  and  the  power,  at 
this  time,  to  exclude  Georgia  and  Alabama 
from  the  benefits  of  such  reciprocal  com- 
mercial relations  with  foreign  powers  as 
are  secured  by  treaties ;  suppose  these  two 
States,  by  the  very  promise  of  their  success, 
were  marked  as  targets  of  industrial  assault, 
and  that  they,  without  the  power  to  pro- 
tect by  duties  their  own  manufactures,  were 
obliged  to  compete  with  the  protected  and 
bounded  industries  of  Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania ;  and  suppose  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  —  adding  insult  to  injury 
—  should  prohibit  any  exportation  of  cotton 
or  iron  from  those  States !  The  pen  wearies, 
the  tongue  tires  in  giving  expression  to  such 
an  hypothesis !  And  yet  such  a  course  of 
injustice,  robbery  and  industrial  slaughter 
would  be  but  the  type  of  what  England  has 
done  with  Ireland. 


86  Industrial  Despotism. 

Let  it  be  remembered  when  studying  the 
hypothetical  and  the  historical  results  of 
"free  trade"  and  "protection"  that  English 
industries  were  planted,  nurtured  and  well 
established  under  a  protective  tariff,  and 
even  bounties,  before  the  adoption  of  the 
present  free  trade  policy. 

Is  there  any  sequence,  or  is  it  mere  coin- 
cidence, that  England's  free  trade  policy  was 
not  adopted  until  Irish  industries  were  de- 
stroyed and  Irish  nationality  was  well-nigh 
crushed;  and  Ireland's  population  of  from 
five  to  eight  millions,  afforded  an  enforced, 
but  ready,  continual  and  convenient  market 
for  the  manufactures  of  Manchester,  Birm- 
ingham and  Leeds  ?  The  cities  of  Belfast, 
Dublin  and  Cork  were  no  longer  shipping 
places  for  Irish  exports,  but  were  ports  of 
entry  and  storehouses  of  English  goods  for 
Irish  consumers.  Is  it  inquired  how  could 
poverty-stricken  Ireland  afford  any  consid- 
erable market  for  manufactures  of  any 
kind  ?  Let  it  be  remembered  that  Ireland, 
though  in  herself  poor,  has  received  for 
years  a  steady  income  of  millions  of  dollars 
every  year  from  America.     A  high   English 


Industrial  Despotism.  8j 

authority  estimates  that  up  to  a  recent  date 
this  sum  was  equal  to  ten  million  dollars  per 
annum.  Much  of  this  vast  sum  has  been 
contributed  by  Irish  servant-girls  in  the 
kitchens  and  nurseries  of  New  York,  Boston 
and  Philadelphia,  and  by  factory  and  mill 
operatives  among  the  protected  industries 
of  New  England  and  Pennsylvania.  These 
Irish-Americans,  often  living  in  comparative 
comfort  themselves,  have  been  able  through 
the  Irish  tenant  and  the  Irish  consumer  thus 
to  feed  the  greed  of  those  twin  despotisms, 
landlord  absenteeism  and  commercial  piracy. 

Landlordism  is  doomed.  A  wholesale  land 
purchase  bill  is  one  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  be- 
neficent measures  for  Ireland.  Before  many 
years  these  little  tenant  holdings  shall  have 
passed  in  fee  simple  to  the  actual  tillers  of 
the  soil. 

There  is  every  promise  that  when  Ireland 
shall  have  regained  her  local  government 
she  will  again  seek  to  nurture  her  industries, 
give  employment  to  her  people,  and  thus 
relieve  the  unnatural  demand  upon  agricult- 
ure, which  is  one  cause  of  the  present  agra- 
rian troubles.     Relieved  from   the  political 


88  Industrial  Despotism. 

oppression  of  Dublin  Castle  Rule  and  the 
eighty-seven  coercion  acts  of  this  century, 
her  police  barracks  can  easily  be  changed 
into  warehouses,  her  whiskey  shops  to  bak- 
eries and  her  poorhouses  to  cattle  sheds. 

Then  shall  Ireland's  answer  to  the  univer- 
sal question  be  more  worthy  the  civilization 
of  the  on-coming  twentieth  century. 


CHAPTER   VII. 


COERCION. 


THE  earliest  records  of  all  peoples  touch 
disputes  concerning  land.  First,  (i) 
The  individual  wresting  from  his  fellow  a 
coveted  hill  or  valley,  then  the  tribe  dispos- 
sessing by  force  their  neighboring  tribe ; 
finally,  on  a  larger  and  more  extended  scale, 
opposing  nations  came  into  conflict. 

As  a  rule,  the  direct  and  principal  object 
of  all  invasions,  is  to  get  possession  of  the 
land  of  the  conquered  country ;  this  was  true 
of  the  Jews,  Vandals,  Goths  and  Huns,  and 
later  of  the  Saxons,  Danes  and  Normans. 

By  the  natural  laws  of  assimilation  the 
conquered  and  the  conqueror  speedily  fuse, 
and  adopt  similar  laws,  language  and  dress ; 
Ireland  was  no  exception  to  the  operation  of 
this  law,  and  the  original  invaders  readily 
assimilated  to  the  Irish,  and  adopted  their 
customs,  manners  and  dress.     This  was  too 

89 


90  Coercion. 

much  for  proud  England,  for  did  not  all  his- 
tory teach  that  the  weaker  and  conquered 
people  speedily  fused  and  adopted  the  cus- 
toms and  laws  of  their  conquerors.  The 
English  people  had  fused  with  the  Normans 
and  had  seen  some  of  their  cherished  insti- 
tutions swallowed  up  by  the  feudal  system 
of  the  invaders ;  should  the  process  be  re- 
versed by  the  low  Irish  peasant?  No;  not 
if  England  could  prevent  it. 

Now  begins  the  long  and  dreary  series  of 
Irish  Coercion  Acts.  The  first  were  aimed 
at  the  English  colonists  in  Ireland,  who  were 
degenerating  into  "  mere  Irish  '  and  would 
soon  be  absorbed  by  the  "  Irish  enemy." 
This  would  be  disastrous  to  English  author- 
ity; hence  the  Kilkenny  Statute,  by  which  it 
was  made  hisfh  treason  for  the  colonists  to 
marry,  bring  up,  foster,  or  stand  sponsor  to, 
any  of  the  Irish,  while  any  Englishman  using 
an  Irish  name,  wearing  an  Irish  dress,  speak- 
ing the  Irish  language,  following  the  Irish 
custom  of  growing  a  moustache,  or  of  riding 
without  a  saddle,  had  all  of  his  possessions 
sold  in  atonement,  or  if  a  poor  man,  was  con- 
demned to  imprisonment  for  life. 


Coercion,  9 1 

The  folly  of  such  petty  and  unjust  acts  of 
coercion  is  only  equalled  by  its  wickedness. 
The  losfic  of  events  soon  demonstrated  that 
these  impositions  of  unusual  restraint  on 
the  liberty  of  innocent  customs  and  habits 
were  a  complete  failure,  and  many  of  the 
colonists  became  "  More  Irish  than  the  Irish 
themselves." 

The  obvious  injustice,  and  the  failure  of 
these  first  coercive  measures  taught  Eng- 
land no  lesson.  Failing  to  prevent  the  grow- 
ing moustache,  the  bare-back  riding,  and  the 
operation  of  God's  universal  law  of  love, 
marriage  and  offspring,  she  found  herself  in 
danger  of  losing  by  absorption  what  little 
power  Ireland  already  possessed,  and,  with 
hardness  of  heart,  determined  to  try  other 
coercive  measures.  Poyning's  law  was  di- 
rected against  Irish  Nationality  and  pro- 
vided that  henceforth  no  Parliament  should 
be  held  in  Ireland  "  until  the  Chief-Governor 
had  certified  to  the  Kino-  under  the  Great 
Seal,  as  well  the  causes  and  considerations, 
as  the  Acts  they  desired  to  pass,  and  till  the 
same  should  be  approved  by  the  King  and 
Council."     Thus  were  the  Irish  compelled  to 


92  Coercion, 

nullify  their  authority,  and  their  Parliament 
became  a  farce. 

These  laws  did  not  increase  the  love  be- 
tween the  two  peoples,  nor  were  they  calcu- 
lated to  make  either  natives  or  settlers 
law-abiding  people.  This  exceptional  inter- 
ference by  England  in  purely  Irish  affairs 
was  conspicuously  unjust  and  contrary  to 
her  uniform '  conduct  with  her  other  colo- 
nies, and  the  result  proved  that  while  Eng- 
land by  coercion  could  manacle  the  Irish 
Parliament,  she  could  not  thereby  compel 
loyal  obedience  to  laws  practically  enacted 
at  Westminster. 

It  is  often  claimed  that  religious  dif- 
ferences are  the  chief  causes  of  trouble 
between  England  and  Ireland,  but  these 
instances  of  coercion  occurred  long  before 
the  Reformation,  and  when  both  islands  pro- 
fessed the  same  creed,  but  so  great  was  the 
mutual  hatred  in  Ireland  that  Englishmen 
and  Irishmen  each  built  and  worshiped  in 
their  own  churches  as  exclusively  as  though 
some  great  difference  of  faith  kept  them 
apart. 

In  the  progress  of  time  the  Reformation 


Coercion.  93 

swept  over  England,  and  she  became  Pro- 
testant. Of  course  the  Irish  people  must 
be  Protestant  too.  This  was  a  sacred  duty, 
and  must  be  accepted  as  of  right.  They 
were  to  change  their  faith  at  the  word  of 
command.  No  attempt  was  made  to  con- 
vert them;  the  Bible  was  not  even  translated 
into  Irish.  The  English  Church  service  was 
to  be  read  in  English  or  Latin,  by  these 
merciless  enemies,  to  a  people  who  under- 
stood  neither. 

The  result  of  this  experiment  failed. 
The  Irish  people  were  not  to  be  converted 
in  that  way.  Thus  a  new  cause  for  coer- 
cive measures  arose,  and  England  was 
not  slow  to  use  it  in  vindicating  the  su- 
premacy of  her  religion.  All  former  oppres- 
sion faded  into  insignificance  before  the 
stern  "  Penal  Code '  which  was  framed  es- 
pecially to  coerce  Papists  into  Protestants. 
The  English  Parliament  at  Westminster, 
and  the  more  English  Parliament  in  Ireland 
concurred  in  stripping  the  Catholics  (com- 
prising five  sixths  of  the  Irish  people)  of 
every  vestige  of  civil,  political  and  religious 
freedom. 


94  Coercion. 

The  English  historian  Froude  (who  can- 
not be  suspected  of  partiality  to  the  Irish) 
has  said:  "The  English  government  had 
added  largely  to  their  difficulty  by  attempt- 
ing: to  force  the  Reformation  on  Ireland 
while  its  political  and  social  condition  was 
still  unsettled.  The  Irish  were  not  to  be 
blamed  if  they  looked  to  the  Pope,  to  Spain, 
to  France,  to  any  friend  in  earth  or  heaven 
to  deliver  them  from  a  power  that  dis- 
charged no  single  duty  that  rulers  owe  to 
subjects." 

What  was  effected  by  these  coercive  laws? 
Priests  were  driven  from  their  flocks,  bishops 
and  prelates  put  to  death,  church  property 
was  confiscated,  and  open  mass  gagged. 
The  Reformation  had  come  with  crushing 
ferocity,  and  the  "  supremacy  of  England's 
ecclesiastical  laws  was  vindicated." 

But  what  of  the  Irish  spirit  and  the 
Catholic  faith  ?  Were  these  crushed  ?  No 
indeed.  The  very  brutalities  of  which  the 
coercionists  of  that  period  were  guilty,  did 
but  serve  to  intensify  their  faith  in  and  love 
for  Romanism. 

The  tangible   Romish  Church   in  Ireland 


Coercion.  95 

was  for  the  time  suppressed,  but  England 
forgot  that  the  intangible,  the  ideal,  the 
sentimental  are  just  as  real,  and  must  be 
considered ;  that  faith  and  love  are  facts  as 
actual  as  powder  and  shot.  The  Irish  clung 
to  their  faith,  the  English  to  their  guns,  and 
the  fact  that  Romanism  is  stronger  in  Irer 
land  to-day  than  in  any  other  nation  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  outside  of  the  distinc- 
tively papal  countries  of  Europe  and  South 
America,  ought  to  teach  the  English  govern- 
ment that  the  Armstrong  gun  will  not  crush 
out  Irish  nationalism,  but  will  intensify  it. 

Thus  centuries  of  coercive  measures  failed 
to  destroy  Irish  character,  Irish  customs  or 
Irish  faith. 

But  proud  England  would  not  be  baffled, 
and  what  she  failed  to  do  by  force,  she  now 
seeks  to  do  by  fraud  and  stratagem. 

It  is  at  least  a  change  to  turn  our  atten- 
tion from  coercion  to  seduction.  England 
now  commenced  to  draw  Ireland  into  the 
"  union  '  by  the  influences  of  promises  of 
titles,  of  political  preferment,  and  a  "  judi- 
cious expenditure  '  of  over  ten  millions  of 
dollars    among    the    members   of    the    Irish 


96  Coercion. 

Parliament,  all  Protestants,  and  accomplished 
the  tangible  fact  of  "  union."  The  articles 
were  agreed  to  by  the  two  Parliaments,  and 
the  rewards  were  duly  bestowed  on  the  vio- 
lent abductors  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 

The  Irish  people  are  informed  that  they 
are  united  with  England,  and  dragged  re- 
luctant and  protesting  to  the  bridal  cham- 
ber. Was  the  sentiment  of  the  Irish  people 
changed?  No;  except  to  make  them  detest 
England  all  the  more. 

How  absurd  to  apply  the  name  of 
"  union,"  which  means  concord,  to  a  con- 
dition which  is  the  result  of  seduction, 
abduction  and  coercion.  What  concord  has 
existed  between  the  two  peoples  during  the 
eighty-seven  years  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  consummation  of  this  unnatural  crime  ? 

In  twenty-two  of  the  first  thirty  years 
of  the  so-called  "  union  "  the  Habeas  Cor- 
pus Act  was  suspended  and  eighteen  Coer- 
cive Acts,  or  acts  of  a  similar  nature,  passed. 
This  fraudulent  union  has  brought  Ireland 
in  eighty-seven  years,  eighty-seven  coercion 
acts.  The  last  and  the  most  severe  of  all  is 
aimed   to  crush  the  Irish  National  League 


Coercion.  97 

which  the  Irish  people  believe  is  "  their  sal- 
vation," and  which  alone  stands  between 
them  and  the  most  cruel  oppression.  And 
this  is  done  with  the  deliberate  and  avowed 
object  of  destroying  the  political  organiza- 
tion of   the   Irish  people. 

On  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1887,  a  decision  is 
made  according  to  the  law  and  the  testi- 
mony which  presents  to  the  world  in  ugly 
hieroglyphics,  England's  version  of  consti- 
tutional liberty  in  Ireland  under  the  last 
Coercion  Act. 

The  arrest,  under  the  Crimes  Bill,  of 
William  O'Brien,*  for  an  alleged  violation 
of  the  right  of  free  speech,  the  denial  to 
him  of  trial  by  a  jury,  his  conviction  and 
sentence  to  three  months'  imprisonment  by 
two  stipendiary  magistrates  of  Dublin  Castle, 
this  is  an  heroic  page  in  the  history  of  Ire- 
land's march  for  constitutional  liberty. 

The  circumstances  of  the  case  were  that, 
on  the  ninth  and  eleventh  of  August,  1887, 

*  My  apology  for  giving  so  full  an  account  of  the  trial  of  William  O'Brien 
lies  in  the  hope  that  it  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  methods  used  by  England  in 
enforcing  coercion  laws.  I  was  present  and  witnessed  the  trial.  The  accompa- 
nying details  are  taken  almost  verbatim  from  an  account  written  at  the  time. 


98  Coercion. 

William  O'Brien, a  member  of  the  British  Par- 
liament, addressed  his  constituents  at  Mitch- 
elstown,  County  of  Cork,  Ireland,  on  general 
political  issues.  Among  other  things  he 
advised  tenants  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  they  should  meet  the  processes  of 
eviction  then  pending.  He  set  forth  the 
Plan  of  Campaign  as  the  wisest  course  by 
which  to  maintain  their  holdings  until  the 
new  act  of  Parliament,  giving  the  tenants 
greater  reduction  in  rent  than  many  of  them 
had  dared  to  ask  and  which  was  soon  to  go 
into  operation,  would  give  redress.  In  the 
meanwhile  they  were  advised  to  "  defend 
their  homes  by  all  honest  means,  and  to 
make  evictions  as  slow  and  as  expensive 
to  the  Government  as  possible." 

His  advice  was  followed,  and  not  another 
eviction  was  successfully  carried  out.  The 
five  hundred  tenants  on  the  Mitchelstown 
estate  can  now  go  into  the  Land  Court  and 
claim  the  provisions  of  the  new  law. 

The  Crimes  Bill,  under  which  Mr.  O'Brien 
was  arrested,  provides  for  the  arrest  and  trial 
by  summary  proceeding  before  two  resident 
magistrates  and  without  jury  "  of  any  per- 


Coercion.  99 

son  who  shall  incite  any  other  person  to 
resist  a  minister  of  the  law  in  the  execution 
of  his  duty."  The  trial  was  conducted  in 
the  court  house,  and  seemed  more  like  a 
military  than  a  civil  proceeding.  The  pris- 
oner entered  town  in  an  open  carriage,  pre- 
ceded by  Scotch  fusileers,  surrounded  by 
armed  constabulary  and  mounted  hussars.  A 
procession  of  open  carriages  bringing  brother 
members  of  Parliament  —  Irish  and  English 
—  and  other  friends  and  representatives  of 
Irish  nationalism  followed  the  prisoner.  At 
the  court  house  ladies  presented  flowers  and 
displayed  the  ribbon  of  green. 

The  military  and  constabulary  were  va- 
riously disposed  in  the  court  room,  about 
the  entrance,  in  the  square  opposite  and 
across  the  common  highway  on  either  side 
the  main  entrance  to  the  town.  Neighing 
horses,  nodding  plumes,  glittering  steel,  bril- 
liant red  coats,  armed  men  drawn  up  before 
the  entrance  to  a  court  house,  and  all  for 
what?  Why  is  all  this  display,  this  show 
of  war?  Has  Russia  marched  on  Bulgaria, 
have  Bismarck  and  Von  Moltke  broken  the 
Triple  Alliance,  has  Napoleon's  ghost  arisen 


ioo  Coercion. 

and  has  Wellington  called  to  arms?  O  no! 
This  is  only  William  O'Brien  —  the  man 
who  could  not  be  hired  to  run  away  —  and 
the  unarmed  peasants  who  have  come  to 
do  him  honor.  The  court  consisted  of  two 
resident  magistrates  appointed  by  Dublin 
Castle.  They  represented  in  physique  and 
general  bearing  typical  English  gentlemen. 

William  O'Brien,  the  prisoner  at  the  bar, 
was  the  centre  of  interest  —  a  tall,  spare 
man,  with  laro-e  features,  a  stron^lv  marked 
intellectual  development,  piercing  eyes  even 
through  the  glasses  which  he  always  wears, 
quick,  almost  nervous  in  movement  and  in- 
tense in  nature  and  convictions.  He  looked 
a  little  worn  from  confinement  and  his  jour- 
ney hither;  he  neither  smiled  nor  frowned 
at  the  testimony  of  witness,  the  sparring  of 
counsel  or  the  rulings  of  the  court.  Con- 
fronted with  representatives  of  the  Crown, 
really  partisans  of  a  Tory  Government  which 
he  had  defied,  surrounded  by  military  and 
armed  constabulary,  from  whom  his  accus- 
ers are  taken,  as  one  after  another  testified 
against  him  he  was  as  calm  and  self-poised 
as  if  in  his  editorial  chair  at  Dublin.     The 


Coercion.  i  o  i 

room  was  densely  packed  and  all  were  friends 
save  the  officers  of  the  Crown  and  their  serv- 
ants. His  counsel,  Mr.  T.  Harrington  M.  P., 
and  Mr.  Mandeville  of  Mitchelstown,  were 
personal  friends  and  brother-patriots  as  well. 
They  conducted  a  vigorous  and  powerful 
defence. 

Next  in  interest,  but  not  second  in  the 
affections  of  the  people,  is  John  Dillon,  who 
sits  close  by  intently  watching  the  proceed- 
ings. Now  and  then  slowly  rising  with  sim- 
ple dignity,  his  calm  eyes  quietly  assure  the 
eager  throng  that,  however  this  case  may 
go,  the  battle  brings  final  victory  to  Ireland. 
There  emanates  from  this  strong,  quiet  man, 
who  seldom  smiles,  an  irresistible  moral 
power;  it  compels  the  respectful  considera- 
tion of  his  enemies,  it  inspires  confidence 
and  cements  devotion  among  his  followers. 
This  is  true  in  a  limited  sense  of  a  dozen  or 
more  lesser  leaders  whom  the  people  trust 
and  obey. 

These  leaders  have  been  more  effective  as 
a  self-constituted  police  among  these  surging 
multitudes  than  the  Castle  constabulary  or 
Her  Majesty's  Hussars.     The  organizer  and 


102  Coercion. 

commander  of  this  voluntary  local  police  is 
John  Mandeville,  brother  to  Mr.  O'Brien's 
counsellor,  himself  under  arrest  for  the  same 
so-called  incendiarism.  From  his  prison  cell 
he  districted  the  town  and  stationed  his 
men;  in  citizens'  clothes  and  without  arms, 
they  have  kept  the  peace,  notwithstanding 
the  people  were  annoyed  with  the  show  and 
interference  of  military  authority,  and  aggra- 
vated at  the  spectacle  of  their  heroic  de- 
fender in  Parliament  and  at  home,  on  trial 
for  the  strong,  helpful  words  he  had  uttered 
to  and  for  them.  What  a  spectacle !  A 
member  of  Parliament  on  trial  as  a  disturber 
of  the  peace,  an  inciter  to  incendiarism,  his 
co-defendant  in  jail  awaiting  trial  for  a 
similar  offence ;  these  two  alleged  crim- 
inals holding  in  check  thousands  of  men 
impassioned  by  poverty  and  sense  of  out- 
rage, but  who  for  this  repressive  moral  power 
miodit  have  thrown  themselves  across  this 
last  dead  line  of  England's  nineteenth  cent- 
ury  coercion  policy ! 

The  heroic  and  the  pathetic  are  strangely 
blended  in  this  passing  history.  A  few  brave 
men,  with  love  of    God,  of  country  and  of 


Coercion.  103 


human  rights,  makctheir  protest  against  the 
hoary  legal  intrenchments  of  landed  aris- 
tocracies. With  self-abnegation  they  labor 
without  ceasing,  they  endure  all  things,  they 
risk  all  things.  This  is  heroism.  The  un- 
questioning loyalty  of  poor,  ignorant  men, 
the  tender,  almost  worshipful  devotion  of 
women  and  little  children,  the  benediction 
of  the  aged,  these  are  pathetic.  Very  touch- 
ing are  some  manifestations  of  these  people. 
Among  the  multitudes  who  crowded  about 
the  door  as  O'Brien  entered  the  court  was  a 
decrepit  old  woman,  who  gazed  reverently  as 
the  adored  hero  passed.  With  hands  clasped 
in  attitude  of  prayer  she  said :  "  Indeed  I'm 
praying  His  holy  name,  and  the  blessed  Mary 
and  Joseph  and  all  the  rest  of  thim,  that 
there'll  no  harm  come  to  any  one  to-day. 
Sure  and  might  not  we  be  patient ;  did  not 
Himself  suffer  more  than  any  of  us,  and 
His  blessed  mother  looking,  at  Him  all  the 
time  ? " 

While  the  crowd  cheered  and  threw  their 
caps  in  air  at  sight  of  their  heroes,  along  its 
fringe  were  many  tearful  women  who  feebly 
swayed    with    weight    of    anguished    years, 


1 04  Coercion. 

which  left  in  them  no  pOwer  to  utter  sound. 
As  dies  the  last  tone  of  a  muffled  bell,  when 
the  funeral  train  has  passed,  so  they  looked 
silent  on.  When  Ireland's  coming  day  shall 
have  arisen  from  this  red  morn  these  mourn- 
ers will  be  resting  underneath  the  verdant 
sod,  but  their  children  and  their  children's 
children  shall  be  free. 

Mr.  T.  Harrington,  the  leading  counsel 
for  Mr.  O'Brien,  is  a  typical  Irishman,  im- 
petuous to  ferocity,  humorous  to  hilarity,  at 
times  incisive  and  cold  as  steel,  and  a^ain 
hot  as  burning  lava.  He  follows  the  witness 
on  cross-examination  with  the  seeming  reck- 
lessness of  a  trained  acrobat  or  the  merciless 
grip  of  a  professional  pugilist.  The  case  for 
the  Crown  rested  on  the  testimony  of  three 
policemen,  who  took  the  stand,  armed  and 
in  full  uniform.  It  is  the  custom  for  the 
Government  on  its  own  behalf  to  detail  a 
reporter  for  popular  Irish  gatherings,  that  an 
official  account  of  the  meetings  and  the  very 
words  of  the  speakers  may  be  known  to 
the  Castle.  Much  annoyance  and  doubtless 
some  intimidation  has  been  occasioned  by 
this  custom.     During    the    progress   of    the 


Coercion.  1 05 

case  on  behalf  of  the  Crown,  and  after  the 
introduction  of  several  witnesses,  whose  tes- 
timony failed  to  sustain  the  charge,  the 
Crown  rested  without  calling  Constable 
O'Sullivan,  who  was  the  official  reporter  of 
the  meeting  at  which  O'Brien  spoke.  Then 
occurred  a  dramatic  scene,  the  like  of  which 
is  seldom  witnessed  in  a  court  room.  Mr. 
Harrington  sprang  to  his  feet  and  exclaimed, 
"  Is  it  possible,  Your  Worships,  that  the  Crown 
will  close  this  case  without  calling  Head 
Constable  O'Sullivan,  who  was  that  day  in 
charge  of  the  peace  of  the  town,  and  who 
certainly  should  be  able  to  give  material  tes- 
timony?" To  this  the  Crown  counsel  coolly 
replied:  "The  case  for  the  Crown  has 
closed,"  repeating  the  answer  several  times 
in  response  to  Mr.  Harrington's  exclama- 
tions of  surprise.  "  Very  well,  then,"  said 
Harrington,  "  I  ask  Your  Worship  for  a 
summons  for  Head  Constable  O'Sullivan." 
After  some  words  as  to  the  cowardice  of  the 
Crown  in  not  producing  its  own  officer  as  a 
witness,  and  the  taunting  retort  that  if  this 
witness  were  called  by  the  defence  they  must 
be  bound  by  his  testimony,  Mr.  Harrington 


1 06  Coercion. 

said :  "  Very  well,  then,  I  take  him  as  my 
witness,  hostile  though  he  certainly  will  be." 
After  the  confusion  attending  this  seeming 
recklessness  had  subsided,  O'Sullivan  ap- 
peared and  was  sworn. 

Following  preliminary  questions  as  to  his 
being  in  charge  of  the  force  on  that  day, 
his  presence  at  the  meeting,  his  taking  notes 
of  Mr.  O'Brien's  speech,  Counsel  Harring- 
ton asked  him  to  produce  the  notes.  He 
answered  he  would  not  unless  directed  by 
his  superior  officer.  The  Court  was  evidently 
inclined  to  shield  the  witness,  and  seemed 
confused  as  to  a  conflict  of  authority  between 
himself  and  the  Royal  Constabulary,  to  which 
the  witness  was  subordinate.  After  some 
consultation  the  officer  in  command,  with 
sword  dangling  from  his  belt,  stepped  to  the 
witness,  and,  after  conference,  permitted  him 
to  produce  the  notes.  They  were  fuller  and 
more  carefully  prepared  than  those  of  pre- 
vious witnesses  ;  they  were  far  less  objection- 
able in  tenor  and  actual  signification  ;  indeed, 
a  case  against  Mr.  O'Brien  could  not  have 
been  sustained  by  that  report  of  his  speech. 
It  was  then  quite  evident  why  the  Crown  had 


Coercion.  107 

not  produced  this  witness.  Faces  before 
listless  became  intense,  and  interest  deepened 
to  indignation  when,  on  examination  by  coun- 
sel, it  was  discovered  that  the  resistance  ad- 
vocated by  Mr.  O'Brien  was  qualified  bf  the 
noble  adjective  "  honest."  This  word  was 
omitted  from  the  notes  of  former  witnesses 
of  the  Crown,  and  when  it  was  further  dis- 
covered that  upon  the  margin  of  the  paper 
on  which  the  notes  were  written  was  penciled 
in  another  hand, "  not  to  be  used,"  and  that  this 
official  report  had  been  carried  by  the  witness 
to  Dublin  Castle  ;  that  a  conference  with  the 
Crown  counsel  and  the  Divisional  Inspector 
of  Royal  Constabulary  —  Capt.  Plunkett  by 
name  —  had  there  been  held  ;  that  one  of  the 
here  presiding  judges  on  that  very  day,  and 
from  that  very  place,  had  issued  the  summons 
for  the  arrest  of  Mr.  O'Brien  ;  when  one  after 
another  these  circumstances  of  a  manifest 
conspiracy  by  civil  and  military  officers  of 
the  Crown  to  jeopardize  the  liberty  of  a  citi- 
zen by  suppressing  exculpatory  testimony  in 
its  possession;  when  with  cumulative  force 
this  all  appeared,  it  is  not  strange  that  a 
powerful    impression    was    evident    in    that 


108  Coercion. 

crowded  court  room.  Counsel  for  the  Crown 
was  dumb,  the  witness  crimsoned,  the  impli- 
cated judge  attempted  a  personal  defence. 
Counsel  Harrington,  rising  to  his  utmost 
height,  seized  the  unpretending  paper,  and, 
with  terrible  force,  denounced  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings as  a  mockery  of  justice  and  a  dis- 
grace to  the  Empire.  Gathering  up  his  papers 
and  brief,  he  said:  "  I  will  not  further  disgrace 
myself  by  practicing  before  this  court."  Mean- 
while, the  most  unmoved  of  all  the  throng 
were  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  and  his  friend, 
John  Dillon.  In  the  midst  of  the  excite- 
ment the  Court  adjourned.  The  Court,  at 
the  opening  of  the  next  day's  sessions,  com- 
mented on  the  unfortunate  occurrence  of  the 
preceding  day,  and  severely  reprimanded  Mr. 
Harrington  —  he,  however,  was  absent  —  and 
stated  that  the  dignity  of  the  Court  must  be 
sustained.  To  this  Mr.  O'Brien  (now  acting 
without  counsel)  replied.  He  fully  justified 
Mr.  Harrington's  general  conduct  of  the  case 
and  his  course  in  the  circumstances  under 
criticism ;  he  expressed  high  appreciation  of 
the  distinguished  ability  and  legal  acumen 
displayed  in  wresting  from  a  prejudiced  court 


Coercion.  1 09 

and  an  intriguing  counsel  evidence  of  a 
Dublin  Castle  plot  to  suppress  official  testi- 
mony, and  thus  endanger  his  liberty  and  per- 
haps his  life.  While  he  thus  justified  his 
devoted  friend,  he  found  himself  deprived  of 
his  valuable  service,  and  must  conduct  his 
further  defence  alone.  In  impassioned  ma- 
jesty, and  self-conscious  integrity,  his  illu- 
mined face  bore  no  trace  of  despair. 

"  Ulysses  stood  alone,  but  stood  collected 
in  himself  and  whole."  Mr.  O'Brien  closed 
in  his  own  defence.  He  cleclared  the  con- 
struction of  the  Court  unconstitutional,  the 
judges  biased  by  subordination  to  political 
and  military  authority,  the  Crown  counsel 
manifestly  guilty  of  prejudicing  his  cause  by 
a  suppression  of  official  testimony,  and  he 
denounced  the  ostentatious  display  of  con- 
stabulary and  military  force  as  an  insult  to 
the  Irish  people,  whose  representative  he  was. 
He  claimed  that  the  Crown  had  utterly  failed 
to  establish  a  case  against  him,  but  disclaimed 
any  desire  to  deny  or  apologize  for  or  weaken 
any  advice  he  had  given  or  any  words  he 
had  spoken.  He  rejoiced  that  his  advice  had 
been  so  generally  followed,  and  that  so  many 


no  Coercion. 

poor  tenants,  by  it,  had  been  saved  from  utter 
ruin.  He  reviewed  the  deplorable  condition 
of  the  people,  their  sense  of  outrage  at  the 
course  pursued  by  the  land  agents,  and  boldly 
declared  that,  far  from  being  a  disturber  of 
the  peace  and  an  inciter  to  lawlessness,  he 
was  a  conservator  of  the  peace  and  a  friend 
of  good  government.  He  appealed  from  this 
court  to  the  Irish  people,  to  the  English 
Democracy,  and  to  the  civilized  world.  While 
listening  to  his  wonderful  plea,  one  forgot  that 
he  was  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  and  thought 
of  him  as  a  chief  amid  his  clan,  a  hero  of 
heroes,  a  seer  among  statesmen,  a  Christian 
patriot  ready  to  live  and  labor  or  suffer  and 
die  for  his  country.  Of  what  consequence 
to  him  then  was  the  three  months'  sentence 
that  the  Mitchelstown  Court  imposed  upon 
him?  'Tis  but  a  speck  of  time;  a  comma 
in  the  record  of  his  life's  work.  In  the  long 
perspective  of  history  he  shall  stand  among 
heroes.  In  the  heap  of  manacles,  and  whips, 
and  chains,  and  tortuous  engines  of  earth's 
tyrannies  shall  be  seen  the  bands  he  broke, 
the  fetters  he  unloosed.  Multitudes  of  Ire- 
land's poor  shall  call  him  blessed. 


I 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    IRISH    LAND    QUESTION. 


N   tracing  England's    dealings   with    Ire- 


land in  the  matters  of  government, 
religion  and  commerce,  we  have  pointed 
out  how  these  were  affected  by  the  land 
question.  It  is  the  one  question  which  has 
been  in  dispute  during  the  whole  period 
since  the  conquest,  and  which  still  lies  at 
the  root  of  Ireland's  difficulties. 

Seven  hundred  years  of  strife  and  tumult, 
of  injustice  and  violence,  have  passed  away, 
and  still  the  conflict  goes  on. 

That  we  may  the  better  comprehend  the 
agrarian  wrongs  which  the  people  now  suf- 
fer, and  the  nature  and  scope  of  the  recent 
land  acts  passed,  it  is  well  to  examine  the 
causes  of  this  perpetual  conflict. 

As  already  shown,  conquest,  confiscation 
and  coercion  were  the  means  used  by  the 
English  to  acquire  possession  of  lands  in 
Ireland. 


in 


H2  The  Irish  Land  Question. 

If  the  proportion  of  the  English  colonists 
in  Ireland  had  approached  in  number  that 
of  the  native  Irish  population,  and  if  they 
had  maintained  actual  possession  of  these 
stolen  lands,  a  complete  organization  of 
society  on  the  English  system  of  Land 
Tenure  might  have  been  the  result,  and  the 
strife  might  have  ended.  But  such  was  not 
the  case ;  the  best  land  was  taken  bv  force 
and  parcelled  out  to  colonists,  or  allotted 
to  noblemen  who  lived  in  England,  the 
native  Irish  being  driven  on  to  the  poorer 
lands.  The  real  estate  of  the  English  colo- 
nist was  held  under  the  Feudal  System. 

By  the  thirteenth  century  the  custom  of 
Primogeniture  had  become  absolute  in  Eng- 
land. By  this  law  the  eldest  son  had  the  ex- 
clusive right  to  succeed  to  his  father's  estates. 
The  Irish  had  quite  another  system  of  Land 
Tenure  ;  the  land  was  divided  between  dif- 
ferent clans  and  families  on  an  equitable 
basis,  and  when  a  member  of  a  sept  or  clan 
died,  the  chief  divided  the  lands  afresh 
among  the  remaining  members,  the  heirs 
of  the  deceased  receiving,  share  and  share, 
alike.     This  was  the  Common   Law  of  the 


The  Irish  Laud  Question.  1 1 3 

country  ;  the  immemorial  usage  handed 
down  through  long  generations. 

It  is  evident  that  this  conflict  in  tenure 
might  open  the  door  to  countless  disputes; 
and  this  was  the  fact. 

This  point  is  one  which  it  is  necessary 
to  dwell  upon,  because  it  will  help  to  ex- 
plain many  of  the  anomalies  of  the  Land 
question. 

During  the  two  centuries  that  followed 
the  invasion  of  Ireland  by  Henry  11  the 
Tribal  System  of  Tenure  prevailed  over 
the  greater  part  of  the  Island.  Many  of  the 
English  barons  had  left  their  estates  and 
returned  to  England ;  indeed,  many  had 
never  taken  actual  and  visible  possession 
of  their  Irish  lands ;  these  estates  were  re- 
possessed by  the  Irish  people,  and  again 
came  under  tribal  lawrs  and  customs,  while 
the  members  of  septs  and  clans  again  be- 
came co-proprietors,  and  retained  possession 
for  many  generations. 

Thus  we  see  engrafted  on  the  same  land 
and  at  the  same  time  the  two  systems  of 
tenures  ;  the  paper  title  in  the  absent  Eng- 
lishman from  the  Crown,  representing    the 


H4  The  Irish  Land  Question. 

Feudal  System,  and  the  tribal  title,  with 
actual  possession,  granted  by  the  chief  rep- 
resenting the  Tribal  System. 

In  the  progress  of  time  these  lands  be- 
came more  valuable  and  the  English  owners 
or  their  heirs  at  law  began  to  look  them  up 
and  claim  their  rights ;  this  brought  on  a 
conflict  between  the  invaded  and  the  in- 
vaders ;  a  conflict  of  two  systems.  Thus 
was  inaugurated  a  struggle  between  two 
peoples  which  has  never  ceased,  and  never 
will,  until  it  is  possible  for  the  Irishman  to 
become  the  owner  of  the  soil  of  his  country 
on  an  equitable  basis. 

We  have  briefly  summarized  the  land 
tenures  of  Ireland,  from  Henry  n  to  Charles 
ii — nearly  five  centuries  ;  and  this  was  the 
time  it  took  to  destroy  the  Tribal  System, 
thou  oh  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  not 
entirely  replaced  by  the  English  System ; 
for  while  the  English  landlord  reaped  the 
benefits  of  the  Feudal  System  of  tenure,  he 
used  the  old  Sept  System  when  it  could  be 
applied  to  the  prejudice  of  the  tenant.  The 
landlord  as  chief  of  the  sept,  had  forcibly 
taken  all  its  land ;  and  the  Irish  tenants,  the 


The  Irish  Land  Question.  1 1 5 

members  of  the  sept,  paid  rent  to  this  chief, 
and  made  all  improvements  at  their  own 
expense. 

This  dual  system  of  land  tenure  is  a  fruit- 
ful cause  of  Ireland's  griefs,  and  will  pre- 
pare the  mind  of  the  reader  to  appreciate 
the  difficulties  which  beset  the  English  Par- 
liament in  attempting  now  after  centuries  of 
these  oppressive  systems,  to  adjust  the  re- 
lations of  landlord  and  tenant. 

In  1870  the  First  Land  Act  became  law 
and  the  English  people  doubtless  believed 
that  at  last  Ireland's  wrong  had  been  righted. 

The  debates  in  Parliament  at  that  time 
show  that  the  pleas  of  the  more  advanced 
Irish  party  were  not  listened  to;  they  per- 
sistently claimed  that  the  act  did  not  go  to 
the  root  of  the  disease,  and  that  in  some 
respects  it  would  aggravate  the  evil. 

The  act  sought  to  create  fixity  of  tenure 
for  the  tenant,  so  long  as  he  should  pay  his 
rent,  and  to  insure  him  compensation  for  the 
improvements  which  he  had  made.  It  was 
an  imperfect  measure,  and  the  views  of  the 
Irish  members  were  soon  shown  to  be  correct. 
The  landlords  had  retained  "  their  power  to 


1 1 6  The  Irish  Land  Question. 

arbitrarily  increase  their  rents,  irrespective 
of  the  value  of  the  holdings  of  their  estates." 
The  act  only  provided  for  compensation  for 
improvements  in  case  of  arbitrary  eviction ; 
when  a  tenant  was  evicted  for  non-payment 
of  rent  he  lost  his  right.  If  for  any  cause 
a  landlord  desired  to  evict  a  tenant,  and  retain 
the  improvements  without  compensation,  it 
was  an  easy  matter  to  make  the  rent  suffi- 
ciently high  to  accomplish  the  object.  In 
some  instances  rents  were  raised  as  high  as 
five  hundred  per  cent. 

In  the  three  years  before  this  Land  Act 
was  passed  there  were  served  four  thousand 
two  hundred  and  fifty-three  notices  to  quit ; 
in  the  three  years  after,  five  thousand  six 
hundred  and  forty-one,  and  in  seven  years 
after  they  had  doubled.  This  first  act  failed 
"  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  peace,  order  and 
industry,  over  a  smiling  land"  as  was  prophe- 
sied. Why  did  it  fail  ?  Because  English- 
men would  not  take  the  advice  of  the  Irish 
leaders,  but  persisted  in  looking  at  questions 
purely  Irish  through  English  spectacles. 

Between  1S71  and  1880  no  less  than 
twenty-eight  measures  to  amend  or  extend 


The  Irish  Land  Question,  1 1 7 

the  provisions  of  this  Land  Act  of  1870  were 
introduced  into  Parliament,  but  not  one  of 
them  was  carried. 

The  Irish  people,  despairing  of  obtaining 
justice  from  agitation  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment, were  again  forced  into  the  adoption 
of  means  which  were  contrary  to  law  and 
order,  and  terrible  outrages  were  committed, 
which  were  deplored  by  none  more  than  by 
the  Irish  leaders  themselves.  These  out- 
rages caused  new  coercive  acts  to  be  passed, 
and  poor  Ireland  was  again  in  an  alarmingly 
disturbed  state.  The  landlords  organized, 
and  fearing  the  Growing  sentiment  in  En^- 
land  in  favor  of  a  new  land  bill,  that  would 
compel  compensation  in  all  instances  of 
eviction,  they  made  the  most  of  their  time 
and  opportunity,  and  writs  of  evictions  came 
thick  and  fast  upon  the  poor  tenants. 

What  marvel  then  that,  during  this  period 
of  ten  years,  Irishmen  should  organize  for 
self-protection  ?  The  Home  Rule  League 
and  the  Land  League  were  organized  for  the 
purpose  of  uniting  all  creeds  and  opinions 
in  favor  of  Home  Rule  and  Land  Reform 
for  Ireland.     These  carried  on  a  marvelous 


118  The  Irish  Land  Question. 

and  world-wide  agitation,  and  by  united 
efforts  in  1SS0  succeeded  in  increasing  the 
number  of  their  representatives  in  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  to  sixty  members. 

The  thought  of  the  English  people  was 
again  turned  to  Ireland.  Beaconsfield  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  appealing  to  the 
people,  and  officially  denounced  the  Home 
Rule  party.  The  Liberal  Party,  which  was 
known  to  be  in  favor  of  remedial  legislation 
for  Ireland  came  into  power  at  the  general 
election  of  1880,  with  Gladstone  as  their 
leader.  The  first  act  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment was  to  appoint  a  Royal  Commission  to 
inquire  into  the  working  of  the  Land  Act 
of  1870.  It  is  interesting  to  read  the  report 
of  that  commission,  and  its  recommenda- 
tions, and  to  note  how  fully  this  report  sus- 
tained the  prophecy  of  the  Irish  leaders.  It 
was  to  the  effect  that  while  the  Land  Bill 
had  failed  to  produce  any  reform  in  the  sys- 
tem of  land  tenure  in  Ireland,  it  had  not 
checked  unreasonable  increase  in  rents,  nor 
had  it  lessened  evictions. 

In  1 88 1  Mr.  Gladstone  made  an  earnest 
and  bold  attempt  to  deal  with  the  land  ques- 


The  Irish  Land  Question,  119 

tion.  A  measure  introduced  by  him  was 
intended  to  secure  fair  rents,  fair  sale,  and 
fixity  of  tenure.  A  principal  feature  was  the 
creation  of  a  Land  Court,  by  which  all  dis- 
putes between  landlord  and  tenant  might  be 
decided.  A  tenant  going  before  this  court 
could  have  his  holding  appraised,  and  the 
judicial  rent  thus  fixed  controlled  for  fifteen 
vears;  during  this  time  no  rise  in  rent  was 
to  be  possible,  and  no  eviction,  save  for  non- 
payment of  rent,  could  take  place.  In  case 
the  tenant  wished  to  sell  the  good-will  of  his 
holding,  he  could  do  so.  This  bill  after 
being  sent  back  by  the  House  of  Lords  three 
times  was  finally  agreed  to,  and  passed  on 
the  twenty-second  day  of  August,  1881. 

What  a  strange  fatuity !  The  chosen  rep- 
resentatives of  Ireland  who  took  part  in  the 
debates  on  this  bill  have  suffered  imprison- 
ment for  agitating  the  very  views  which  it 
formulated. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  bill,  creating  a 
new  land  tenure,  gave  to  the  Irish  tenant 
great  privileges,  and  created  what  is  prac- 
tically known  as  a  joint-ownership  in  the  soil. 
It    was    an    infringement    of    the    rights    of 


120  The  Irish  Land  Question. 

property,  and  presents  one  of  the  anomalies 
of  this  Irish  Land  Question.  It  deprived 
the  landlord  of  fixing  the  value  of  his  own 
property,  and  practically  declared  that  part 
of  the  value  of  the  land  is  the  just  posses- 
sion of  the  tenant. 

Again  England's  statesmen  congratulated 
the  country  that  the  perplexing  land  ques- 
tion in  Ireland  was  forever  settled.  But  the 
events  which  had  produced  so  great  a  change 
in  public  opinion  in  England,  as  to  render 
it  possible  that  such  a  bill  could  become  law, 
had  produced  a  corresponding  advance  in 
Irish  demands,  and  the  land  bill  which  ten 
years  before  would  have  satisfied  them,  now 
received  only  their  cold  approval,  and  was 
accepted  as  merely  a  half-measure.  And 
such  it  proved  to  be.  Thousands  rushed  to 
the  court  to  have  a  fair  rent  fixed ;  within 
the  first  two  years  over  seventy-five  thousand 
were  fixed  by  the  land  court,  sixty-six  thou- 
sand by  agreement  between  the  landlord  and 
the  tenant,  and  over  ten  thousand  by  the 
county  court;  an  average  of  all  of  these 
shows  that  the  rents  were  reduced  twenty 
per  cent. 


The  Irish  Land  Question,  1 2 1 

Surely  no  stronger  case  for  the  justice  of 
the  tenant's  claim  could  be  made  out,  for 
according  to  the  scale  of  fair  rent  as  fixed 
by  the  court  he  had  for  years  been  paying 
twenty  per  cent  too  much  to  the  landlord. 

Mr.  Gladstone  with  the  best  intentions 
towards  the  Irish  people,  tried  to  settle 
the  Land  Question  by  this  bill.  He  made 
a  mighty  effort  to  uproot  this  upas-tree  of 
centuries'  growth.  He  would  have  measur- 
ably succeeded  but  for  the  unusual  de- 
pression of  more  than  twenty  per  cent  in 
agricultural  products,  since  these  fair  rents 
were  fixed,  and  but  for  the  further  fact  that 
many  of  the  tenants  by  reason  of  being  un- 
able to  pay  back  rents,  could  not  take  the 
benefits  of  the  act,  while  others  had  no 
money  to  expend  in  ordinary  court  expenses. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  landlords  were 
still  masters  of  the  situation,  and  no  one  saw 
this  sooner  than  did  Mr.  Gladstone  himself. 
Again  he  addressed  himself  to  the  question 
of  the  remedy.  To  his  mind  the  time  had 
come  to  do  full  and  complete  justice  to  Ire- 
land, according  to  the  Irish  idea,  and  to  this 
end  he  introduced  in  1885  the  Home  Rule 


122  The  Irish  Land  Question, 

and  Land  Purchase  bills.  These  gave  to 
Ireland  an  independent  parliament  with  full 
power  of  dealing  with  all  local  matters  includ- 
ing land  ;  they  reserved  imperial  guarantees 
for  imperial  matters,  —  such  as  the  army, 
navy  and  finance,  —  and  used  the  imperial 
credit  as  a  means  of  transforming  the  tenure 
of  land  and  of  buying  out  landlords  who 
were  unwilling  to  remain  under  the  new 
order  of  things. 

This  scheme,  generous,  wise  and  states- 
manlike, is  worthy  of  the  great  man  who  con- 
ceived it.  With  unmovable  allegiance  to 
justice,  and  with  sublime  faith  in  the  future, 
he  chose,  when  it  was  rejected,  to  retire 
from  the  office  of  Prime  Minister  of  the 
British  Empire,  and  to  abide  the  verdict  of 
the  people. 


T 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    UNION. 

HE  agitation  for  Home  Rule  for  Ire- 
land compels  a  recurrence  to  what 
some  term  ancient  history,  but  as  the  Bishop 
of  Westchester  has  well  said,  "  The  roots  of 
the  present  lie  deep  in  the  past." 

If  the  Irish  people  had  voluntarily  entered 
into  the  union  with  Great  Britain,  and  if 
the  conditions  of  the  union  had  been  ful- 
filled by  both  parties  to  the  act  —  an  act 
involving  such  vast  interests,  and  affecting 
so  many  vested  rights  —  it  should  have 
been  regarded  as  sacred  and  binding  until 
dissolved  by  mutual  consent;  but  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Irish  Parliament  with  the 
show  of  local  government  ,was  wrested  from 
the  Irish  people  by  fraud  and  violence  and 
they  were  betrayed  into  the  union,  it  matters 
a  great  deal,  and  mere  lapse  of  time  cannot 
bar  the  right  to  full  restitution. 

123 


124  The  Union. 

Previous  to  1782  legislation  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  was  controlled  by  the  English 
Privy  Council,  through  the  provisions  of  the 
celebrated  statute  known  as  the  Poyning's 
Law.  In  1782  this  statute  was  modified  and 
the  Irish  Parliament  was  in  theory  independ- 
ent, though  practically  it  was  largely  con- 
trolled by  English  influence,  as  Catholics 
were  still  ineligible. 

From  1782  to  1800  during  the  period  of 
Parliamentary  independence  there  was  great 
increase  in  prosperity  admitted  by  the  fore- 
most advocates  "  of  the  union,"  as  shown  in 
a  previous  chapter. 

This  brings  us  down  to  the  time  of  the 
unholy  Union  and  leads  us  to  inquire  into 
the  methods  used  to  accomplish  it. 

The  debates  on  the  Act  of  Union  in  the 
British  Parliament  show  conclusively  that 
Birmingham  and  Manchester  feared  the 
growing  industries  of  Ireland  as  being  dis- 
advantageous to  them  ;  indeed  the  con- 
trivers of  the  union  before  1799  avowed  to 
each  other  "  that  the  great  object  of  their 
work  was  a  stoppage  of  the  growing  pros- 
perity  of  Ireland  "  ;    they  probably  did  not 


The  Union.  125 

dream  of  so  complete  an  attainment  of  that 
end  as  has  been  achieved. 

While  touching  upon  the  real  motive  of 
the  English  Government,  we  ought  not  to 
omit  the  evident  intention,  as  it  has  finally 
resulted,  of  making  the  Irish  people  share 
in  the  English  national  debt ;  not  on  a  pro 
rata  basis  by  putting  in  the  comparatively 
small  Irish  national  debt  (though  this  was  at 
first  proposed),  but  by  making  the  otherwise 
oppressed  and  impoverished  nation  bear  as 
much  of  the  debt  of  both  countries  as  could 
possibly  be  wrung  from  it. 

In  1880  the  Irish  national  debt  was  only 
twenty-one  millions,  whereas  the  English 
national  debt  was  four  hundred  and  forty- 
six  millions,  and  the  union  was  advocated 
on  the  ground  that  by  this  means  Ireland 
would  be  subject  to   British  taxes. 

Mr.  Posthlewait  in  writing  about  the  de- 
sirability of  the  union  said,  "  By  the  union 
Ireland  would  soon  be  enabled  to  pay  a  mil- 
lion a  year  toward  the  taxes  of  Great  Britain 
beside  the  full  support  of  their  own  establish- 
ment." Then  comes  this  remarkable  pas- 
sage (which  displays  the  desire  of  the  shark 


126  The  Union, 

to  unite  with  its  prey) :  "  As  England  does 
already  possess  no  inconsiderable  share  of 
the  lands  of  Ireland,  so  the  union  would 
prove  an  effectual  method  to  vest  the  rest 
in  her;  for  as  the  riches  of  Ireland  would 
chiefly  return  to  England,  she  containing  the 
seat  of  the  empire,  the  few  Irish  landlords 
left  would  be  little  better  than  tenants  to  her 
for  allowing  them  the  privilege  of  making 
the  best  of  their  estates." 

The  fear  of  a  French  invasion  was  also  a 
reason  for  the  establishment  of  the  union. 
"  Had  Napoleon  taken  his  fleet  to  Ireland 
instead  of  to  Egypt,  the  power  of  England 
might  have  been  annihilated,  and  in  after 
years  Napoleon  saw  how  fatal  had  been  his 
error ;  but  Pitt  and  the  other  English  states- 
men saw  the  danger  at  the  time,  and  know- 
ing the  widespread  disaffection  in  Ireland, 
they  perceived  as  Napoleon  did  not,  that, 
invaded  by  a  French  fleet  the  Ireland  of  1798 
might  have  become  a  French  province  to 
the  inevitable  ruin  of  the  British  empire." 

This  deep-seated  fear  (felt  though  not 
acknowledged)  having  taken  possession  of 
England's  rulers  it  became   an  incentive  for 


The  Union.  127 

the  most  powerful  efforts  that  could  be  put 
forth  for  national  preservation,  and  a  survey 
of  the  field  developed  all  that  diplomacy 
could  devise,  all  that  stratagem  combined 
with  military  power,  could  accomplish,  aided 
by  bribery  and  intimidation. 

With  the  general  view  of  making  the  Act 
of  Union  more  likely  to  pass,  even  though  it 
might  not  be  popular,  the  Act  of  Catholic 
Emancipation  was  discussed  and  virtually 
promised.  This  act  had  already  become 
popular  with  the  Irish  people  —  Protestants 
as  well  as  Catholics.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was 
appointed  as  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
He  was  known  to  be  favorable  to  such  an 
act,  and  numerous  petitions  for  its  enact- 
ment were  sent  to  him  on  his  arrival  in  the 
country. 

In  February,  1795,  Grattan  brought  in  a 
bill  which  Sir  William  Pitt,  then  Prime 
Minister,  approved ;  but  the  king  announc- 
ing his  opposition,  Pitt  was  obliged  to  reverse 
his  policy  or  resign  his  office ;  he  preferred 
the  former  course ;  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
was  recalled,  his  appointments  reversed,  and 
Grattan's  bill  was  supported  by  a  minority 


128  The  Union. 

of  only  forty-eight.  The  cup  of  concession, 
held  thus  temptingly  to  the  lips  of  Ireland, 
was  dashed  away  by  royal  caprice  ;  the 
people  were  exasperated,  and  the  rebellion  of 
1 798  soon  made  its  dreadful  record.  Seventy 
thousand  persons  perished  in  this  intermit- 
tent civil  war  if  that  may  be  called  a  civil  war 
which  is  represented  on  one  side  by  a  power- 
ful and  rapacious  army  and  on  the  other  by 
a  people  enfeebled  by  poverty,  weighed  down 
by  superstition,  and  only  sustained  by  a  sense 
of  inalienable  right,  a  love  of  home  and  fire- 
side, the  renown  of  their  ancestry  treasured 
in  legendary  ballad  and  historical  record, 
and  in  such  race  inter-lineaments  as  assured 
them  of  their  rightful  heritage. 

In  order  to  veil  a  portion  of  the  heinous- 
ness  of  this  act,  it  was  thought  necessary  to 
make  it  appear  to  be  a  measure  popular 
with  the  people.  Lord  Cornwallis  there- 
fore travelled  through  a  portion  of  the 
country  obtaining  signatures  to  a  petition 
for  the  union ;  these  he  secured  by  persua- 
sion, intimidation,  dissimulation,  and  under 
or  while  martial  law  was  in  operation.  He 
succeeded    in    obtaining    about    three   thou- 


The  Union.  129 

sand  names,  while  the  patriot  party  obtained 
about  seven  hundred  and '  seven  thousand 
signatures  against  the  act.  "  Twenty-seven 
counties,"  says  Mr.  Sheridan,  "  declared 
against  the  union,  and  with  these  there 
would  have  been  included,  if  martial  law 
had  not  been  proclaimed  and  prevented 
the  intended  meetings,  the  counties  of  An- 
trim and  Slisfo.  If  the  measure  was  thus  to 
be  carried  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  it  was  an  act  of  tyranny  and  oppression, 
and  must  become  the  fatal  source  of  new 
discontents  and  future  rebellions." 

An  ugly  feature  of  this  conspiracy  of 
diplomacy  and  power  was  the  subornation 
of  the  Independent  Parliament  of  Ireland, 
known  as  Grattan's  Parliament.  At  a  time 
when  the  country  had  become  comparatively 
prosperous  through  equitable  laws  adminis- 
tered by  it  in  the  interest  of  that  country, 
this  Parliament  was  virtually  annulled  by 
the  suborning  of  a  large  majority  of  its 
members  by  British  bribes  and  a  terrorizing 
diplomacy. 

The  purchase  of  representative  boroughs 
and  the  unseating  of  members  not  favorable 


130  The  Union. 

to  the  union  are  well-authenticated  facts 
which  "  he  who  runs  may  read."  This  latter 
move  was  effected  by  a  technical  perversion 
of  the  "  Place  Bill  "  and  by  substituting  mem- 
bers to  vote  for  the  union,  though  against 
their  every  sense  of  right,  and  the  proffer  of 
English  peerages. 

Thus  what  all  other  means  could  not  do 
wras  effected  by  bribery  and  political  corrup- 
tion. "  Twenty-two  Irish  peerages,"  it  is 
stated,  "  were  created,  five  peers  received 
English  peerages,  and  twenty  peers  received 
higher  titles." 

When  defending  himself  in  the  state 
trials  before  a  jury  composed  exclusively  of 
Unionists,  Mr.  O'Connell  affirmed  without 
fear  of  contradiction  :  "  You  know  that  there 
were  one  million  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand  pounds  actually  spent  in  the 
purchase  of  rotten  boroughs.  You  know 
that  there  were  three  million  pounds  besides 
expended  in  actual  payment  of  the  persons 
who  voted  for  the  union." 

Mr.  Lecky  says :  "  The  ministers,  by 
money  and  dignities,  had  bought  almost 
all  the   great   nomination   borough  owners, 


The  Union.  131 

as  well  as  a  large  proportion  of  the  members, 
and  this  made  their  success  certain." 

Each  seat  was  valued  at  seven  thousand 
five  hundred  pounds,  and  the  whole  sum 
awarded  amounted  to  one  million  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  thousand  pounds. 

The  proposition  was  at  first  defeated  in 
the  Irish  Parliament  by  a  vote  of  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  to  one  hundred  and  four. 
Public  enthusiasm  ran  high  and  the  illumi- 
nation of  Dublin  attested  the  feeling  of  the 
people;  *» 

Two  days  after  the  defeat  of  the  measure 
in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  Lord  Corn- 
wall is  wrote  a  secret  and  confidential  letter 
to  the  Duke  of  Cortland,  in  which  he  says : 

"  The  late  experiment  has  shown  the  im- 
possibility of  carrying  the  measure,  which  is 
contrary  to  the  private  interests  of  those 
who  are  to  decide  it,  and  which  is  not  sup- 
ported by  the  country  at  large." 

The  measure  was  carried,  however,  on 
June  7,  1800,  and  received  the  royal  assent 
on  August  2nd  of  the  same  year ;  "  the  pro- 
longed struggle  between  the  Patriot  party 
and  the   British  cabinet'   was  for   the    time 


132  The  Union. 

concluded  and  "  an  independent  kingdom 
began  to  be  governed  by  alien  officials  in 
whose  selection  she  had  no  voice ;  her  Na- 
tional Parliament  filled  with  nominees  of 
these  officials,  and  of  the  House  of  Lords." 

The  Act  of  Union  became  operative  in 
1 80 1,  and  was  in  that  year  sustained  by  a 
standing  army  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
men;  an  increase  from  less  than  eight  thou- 
sand, used  to  crush  the  rebellion  of  1798, 
which  was  intended  to  express  the  popular 
will  against  the  union. 

This  was  an  earjy  fruit  of  the  "  peace 
and  good  will "  promised  to  result  from  the 
union. 

It  is  a  well-acknowledged  principle  in  the 
courts  of  the  civilized  world,  that  a  contract 
which  has  been  brought  about  by  misrepre- 
sentation or  fraud  is  not  only  voidable,  but 
void  ab  initio,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
courts  of  equity  to  not  only  declare  such 
contracts  void,  but,  if  possible,  to  place  the 
parties  in  the  same  position  as  they  were 
before  the  contract  was  entered  into.  When 
England    returns    to    Ireland    her   "  Home 


The  Union.  133 

Rule,"  and  makes  such  disposition  of  the 
Land  Question  as  is  just  and  equitable,  she 
will  then  have  but  complied  with  the  origi- 
nal rules  of  justice  that  are  compelled  be- 
tween man  and  man. 

If,  however,  the  means  used  to  carry  the 
union  had  been  lawful  and  right,  and  if 
the  action  of  the  Irish  Parliament  had  been 
unbiased  by  fraud  or  intimidation,  the  ques- 
tion may  still  be  asked,  Where  did  that  Par- 
liament get  its  authority  to  annul  the  Irish 
constitution  and  to  deliver  the  government 
to  England? 

The  people  of  Ireland,  as  far  as  they  had 
a  voice,  sent  their  delegates  to  Dublin  to 
make  laws  under  the  constitution  of  Ireland 
and  for  that  commonwealth,  but  instead  of 
doing  what  they  were  elected  to  do,  they 
arrogated  to  themselves  the  power  to  trans- 
fer their  authority  to  the  Parliament  at 
Westminster.  Lord  Chancellor  Plunkett  de- 
nied the  competency  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
to  do  this  act  in  the  most  express  terms.  "  I 
warn  you,"  he  said,  "  do  not  lay  your  hands 
on  the  constitution  ;  I  tell  you  that  if,  circum- 
stanced as  you  are,  you  pass  this  act,  it  will 


134  The  Union. 

be  a  mere  nullity,  and  no  man  in  Ireland 
will  be  bound  to  obey  it ;  you  have  not  been 
elected  for  that  purpose ;  you  were  elected 
to  make  laws,  and  appointed  to  exercise 
the  functions  of  legislators,  not  to  transfer 
them  ;  you  are  appointed  "to  act  under  the 
constitution,  not  to  destroy  it." 

This  was  sound  doctrine,  founded  on  the 
immutable  laws  of  right  and  reason,  but  it 
did  not  prevail,  and  Ireland's  constitution  and 
government  were  taken  by  force. 

Froucle  says:  "If  there  be  one  lesson 
which  history  clearly  teaches,  it  is  this:  that 
free  nations  cannot  govern  subject  provinces. 
If  they  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  admit 
their  dependencies  to  share  their  own  con- 
stitution, the  constitution  itself  will  fall  in 
pieces  from  mere  incompetence  for  its  duties." 

May  it  not  be  that  the  spirit  of  Anglican 
Liberty  long  outraged  b>y  England  in  her 
treatment  of  Ireland,  is  now  an  avenging 
anofel  fio-htins:  Ireland's  cause  ;  and  that  the 
forces  thus  working  out  her  salvation,  are 
the  silent  forces  protecting  the  Englishman 
in  his  constitutional  rights  ? 


CHAPTER    X. 


HOME     RULE. 


GREAT  epochs  in  the  progress  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  have  been  marked 
by  popular  agitation,  by  sanguinary  strife, 
legislative  controversy  and  judicial  decisions. 
The  Irish  cause  now  attracting  the  attention 
of  the  world  is  marked  by  these  distinguish- 
ing features.  It  is  kin  to  Israel's  revolt 
from  Egyptian  task-makers ;  its  leaders  are 
brother  patriots  of  those  of  Sparta,  Greece, 
Poland,  Hungary,  Switzerland.  Its  princi- 
ples are  justified  by  the  Magna  Charta  and 
the  Bill  of  Rights  ;  by  the  American  Declar- 
ation of  Independence  and  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incred- 
ible that  a  people  with  clearly  marked  race 
and  creed  distinctions,  with  an  individual 
history  and  a  national  spirit,  and  dwelling  in 
a  country  separated  from  all  others  by  tem- 

13s 


136  Home  Rule, 

pestuous  seas,  should  desire  self-government  ? 
When  it  is  remembered  that  Ireland  is  such 
a  country  and  that  for  hundreds  of  years  she 
was  unconquered,  while  her  neighbor  Eng- 
land yielded  to  successive  invasions,  is  it 
surprising  that  she  now  protests  against  a 
government  of  injustice  and  coercion  ?  Is  it 
strange  that  after  seeing  for  centuries  such 
power  of  oppression  wielded  by  a  foreign 
government  the  Irish  people  should  believe 
in  a  home  government  ? 

Their  claim  for  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  is 
justified:  — 

Because  the  ri^ht  of  self-government  in- 
heres  in  individuals  and  in  states. 

Because  it  is  a  crime  against  the  spirit  of 
liberty  to  govern  a  state  by  mere  force  of 
numbers  and  military  power,  when  that  state 
has  demanded  self-government. 

Because  the  crime  is  increased  when  this 
coercive  government  is  imposed  upon  a 
once  free  people,  with  race  peculiarities  and 
national  aspirations. 

Because  insult  is  added  to  injury  when 
such  usurpation  and  coercion  are  continued 
under  the  mockery  of  constitutional  forms. 


Home  Rule.  137 

Various  notions  obtain  among  the  Irish 
themselves,  as  to  wherein  Home  Rule  would 
affect  their  present  condition.  The  hillside 
tenant  on  the  sterile  holding  where  his 
fathers  lived  and  died,  remembers  the 
legends  of  his  childhood,  of  the  wild  life  of 
his  clan,  unfettered  by  Parliamentary  decree 
or  landlord's  claim  ;  his  dream  of  Home 
Rule  may  be  of  a  life  as  untrammeled  by 
governmental  interference.  Others  under 
the  sting  of  oppressive  landlordism,  and 
knowing  England  as  the  power  which  sent 
the  armed  constable  and  mounted  hussar 
to  enforce  the  landlord's  cruel  eviction  pro- 
cess, hate  England,  and  believe  that  a 
complete  separation  from  her  would  bring 
Ireland's  national   millennium. 

But  by  far  the  larger  and  more  influential 
part  of  the  people  are  intelligent  students  of 
political  systems  ;  they  know  the  forms  of 
Home  Rule  under  which  Canada,  Australia 
and  other  English  colonies  maintain  har- 
monious relations  with  the  mother  country. 
They  have  close  connections  with  the  Irish 
in  America  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
our  republican  institutions ;  their  leaders  in 


138  Home  Rule. 


the  House  of  Commons  are  the  peers  of 
English  and  American  statesmen  ;  they  de- 
sire local  government  and  an  Irish  Parlia- 
ment for  purely  local  and  Irish  affairs,  with 
relations  to  the  Imperial  Parliament  similar 
in  outline  to  such  as  exist  between  our 
States  and  the  Government  at  Washington. 
They  know  that  the  details  of  these  rela- 
tion will  be  settled  by  the  power  which  con- 
fers on  them  local  government.  They  also 
know  that  some  adjustment  of  the  land 
question  must  precede  or  accompany  their 
desired  Home  Rule.  Mr.  Gladstone's  meas- 
ure recognized  this  necessity,  and  presented 
a  plan  for  land  purchase. 

Knowing  the  dual  nature  of  the  remedy 
which  must  be  administered  to  Ireland's 
diseased  body,  we  remember  that  during  the 
present  century  the  Imperial  Parliament  has 
been  again  and  again  informed  by  its  own 
committees  and  commissioners,  that  the 
land  trouble  was  a  comprehensive  cause  of 
continued  distress.  Not  until  recent  years, 
however,  has  it  attempted  to  remedy  the 
cause  of  this  distress,  but  it  has  by  direct 
legislation  augmented  the  power  of  the  land- 


Home  Rule.  139 

lord  and  rejected  measures  offered  to  allevi- 
ate the  condition  of  the  tenant. 

If  Ireland  were  governed  by  a  Dublin 
Parliament  actually  representing  the  Irish 
people,  such  unequal  legislation  would  be 
unknown.  Home  Rule  would  not  build 
better  houses  for  the  tenant;  it  would  not 
mend  his  fences,  reclaim  his  waste  lands  "or 
teach  him  better  methods  of  farming;  it 
would  not  revoice  silent  mills,  restore  dis- 
mantled factories,  reanimate  prostrate  in- 
dustries, but  with  the  conscious  dignity  of 
self  government  would  come  to  the  people 
as  a  whole  a  responsible  activity  and  the 
material  and  social  blessings  which  follow  in 
its  train. 

Neither  can  the  claim  be  sustained  that 
the  Irish  are  a  vicious  people,  full  of  sedi- 
tion and  crime,  and  thus  incapable  of  self- 
governtnent.  It  is  reported  through  author- 
itative channels  that  there  is  less  crime  in 
Ireland  than  in  England.  The  outrages  so 
loudly  heralded  are  features  of  the  agrarian 
strife  which  rages  and  has  raged  for  centuries. 
This  war  cannot  cease  until  the  free  untram- 
meled    cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  the  enjoy- 


140  Home  Rule. 

ment  of  the  results  of  that  labor,  are  guar- 
anteed to  the  toiler  and  actual  occupant. 
It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  so  much 
oppression  has  been  so  patiently  endured. 
The  power  to  bear  thus  exhibited  is  an  es- 
sential element  in  national  independence. 
An  official  report  given  in  1849  by  one  Cap- 
tain Kennedy  is  filled  with  shocking  details 
of  forcible  ejectments,  some  of  which  had 
not  even  the  apology  of  technical  legality. 
The  report  states,  "  These  ruthless  acts  of 
barbarity  are  submitted  to  with  an  unre- 
sisting patience  hardly  credible/'  To  this 
Sir  Robert  Peel  remarks,  "  Such  tragical 
instances  I  do  not  believe  were  ever  pre- 
sented, either  in  point  of  fact  or  as  conjured 
up  even  in  the  imagination  of  any  human 
being." 

Is  not  intemperance  a  fruitful  source  of 
poverty  and  ignorance  ?  Certainly.  Ireland 
is  no  exception  to  the  rule;  drink  debases 
there  as  it  does  in  England  and  the  United 
States,  although  not  to  any  greater  extent. 
The  name  of  Father  Mathew  is  still  revered, 
and  his  memory  yet  wields  a  mighty  influ- 
ence   for   good.      There    exists    a    growing 


Home  Rule.  141 

temperance   sentiment,  and  the   League    of 
the  Cross  is    an    effective    total    abstinence 

society. 

Many  of  the  Irish  leaders  are  temperance 
men,  and  will  be  willing  and  anxious  to 
embody  the  sentiment  of  the  people  in  tem- 
perance legislation.  As  stated  before,  the 
Irish  Parliament  years  ago  desired  restrict- 
ive legislation,  but  England  refused  to  listen 
to  the  plea,  claiming  that  she  must  have  the 
revenue  ! 

It  is  urged  by  opponents  of  the  Irish 
cause  that  Home  Rule  would  be  "  Rome 
Rule,"  and  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that 
Papacy  to-day  exerts  more  complete  sway  in 
Ireland  than  in  any  country  on  the  earth. 

Great  apprehension  is  expressed  lest  the 
existing  overwhelming  Catholic  majority  in 
social  intercourse,  in  educational  work,  in 
business  and  trade  would  grow  unbearably 
arrogant  and  insufferably  intolerant  if  its 
present  power  were  supplemented  by  politi- 
cal ascendency.  It  is  even  honestly  feared 
that  this  ascendency  might  assume  the  form 
of  religious  persecution,  and  the  future 
equal  the  past  in  secret,  if  not  in  open  out- 


142  Home  Rule. 

rage.  The  history  of  Ireland  proves  too 
much  to  justify  this  apprehension.  The 
most  appalling  outrages  of  the  past  have 
been  between  opposing  faiths,  but  not 
chiefly  because  of  these  faiths.  Hereditary 
family  or  tribal  feuds,  conflicting  systems  of 
laws,  agrarian  controversies,  and  contested 
military  supremacy,  have  entailed  these  in- 
humanities. 

Banners  bearing  emblems  of  political  faith 
have  been  waved,  shibboleths  of  creeds  have 
been  uttered,  but  the  real  cause  has  been 
found  in  conditions  quite  foreign  to  religion 
or  creed. 

It  was  not  Puritanism  and  psalm-singing 
as  opposed  to  the  mass  and  the  confessional 
that  brought  gory  ascendency  to  the  Crom- 
wellian  conquest,  neither  was  inquisitorial 
malignity  the  great  conspirator  in  the  mas- 
sacres of  1 64 1  or  the  rebellion  of  1798. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  England  was 
a  Catholic  country  during  the  earlier  cent- 
uries of  her  conquests  in  Ireland,  and  that 
the  fruitage  of  present  hatred  ripened  on 
trees  planted  when  these  nations  were  of 
common  faith.     The  parties  to  the  present 


Home  Rule.  14 


•A 


controversies  are  of  both  faiths ;  Gladstone 
is  a  champion  of  English  Protestantism  as 
represented  by  the  established  church,  Par- 
nell  is  a  Protestant  Dissenter,  Dillon  and 
William  O'Brien  are  Catholics,  the  magis- 
trates before  whom  O'Brien  was  tried  were 
also  Catholics,  as  are  some  of  the  most 
obnoxious  landlords.  Ireland's  long  contro- 
versy has  been  a  revolt  against  England's 
policy  of  conquest,  rather  than  a  revolt 
aginst  Protestantism,  and  Ireland  has  wel- 
comed the  supremacy  of  Rome  as  a  shield 
to  her  civil  liberties  as  well  as  a  dictator  of 
her  faith. 

At  a  great  meeting  in  Dublin  in  the 
summer  of  1887,  the  presiding  officer  was 
the  Very  Reverend  Dr.  Walch,  archbishop 
of  Dublin,  supported  on  either  side  by  three 
Protestant  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, who  clearly  stated  their  religious  faith 
and  boldly  declared  their  willingness  to 
"close  up'  when  the  ranks  of  Ireland's 
defenders  should  be  thinned  by  the  political, 
judicial  or  sanguinary  slaughter  of  their 
Catholic  confreres.  No  sentiment  finds 
more  enthusiastic  response  than  declarations 


144  Home  Rule. 

of  common  interests1  among  those  of  oppos- 
ing religious  faiths.  Is  not  the  love  for 
liberty  which  finds  utterance  in  the  demand 
for  self-government  a  .universal  sentiment? 
Does  it  not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  human 
instinct,  always  operative,  except  under  in- 
dividual and  national  demoralization  con- 
sequent upon  servitude  ?  Will  English 
Protestantism  concede  that  Irish  Catholi- 
cism is  more  potent  for  evil  than  this  uni- 
versal love  of  liberty  is  potent  for  good  ? 
In  shame  and  sorrow  do  all  Protestants 
remember  that  the  required  payments  of 
church  tithes  from  Catholics  to  the  English 
Protestant  Church,  and  the  political  disabili- 
ties imposed  by  the  English  Church  and  the 
property  disabilities  imposed  by  the  Eng- 
lish Government  upon  Irish  Catholics  are 
the  ghosts  of  the  past  that  will  not  down, 
and  before  which  trembles  the  Britain  of 
to-day. 

The  iniquities  of  the  fathers  are  visited 
upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,  and  conscience  makes  a  mighty 
nation  a  coward.  But  bigotry  and  revenge 
which  may  survive  tyranny  and  war,  cannot 


Home  Rule,  145 

long  exist  under  the  toleration  and  peace  of 
political  and  civil  liberty. 


To  take  a  retrospective  view  of  the  politi- 
cal relations  existing  between  England  and 
Ireland,  covering  a  period  of  several  cent- 
uries, to  note  the  conflicting  interests  there 
delineated,  and  to  condense  these  experiences 
and  conflicts  into  the  short  space  of  a  few 
pages,  and  therefrom  render  an  indictment 
against  any  of  the  later  English  Parliaments 
as  represented  by  the  Government  party 
then  in  power,  would  seem  to  be  an  unjust 
conclusion  of  the  matter. 

But  when  we  see  by  a  careful  reading  of 
such  historical  data  as  have  been  preserved 
from  destruction,  that  the  Government  party 
in  the  British  Parliament  for  centuries  has 
almost  invariably  proceeded  in  one  direction 
they  have  seemed  to  consider  the  Irish  as 
a  distinct  race,  and  not  naturally  entitled  to 
equal  political  rights  with  their  own  sub- 
jects, but  that  they  were  natural  serfs,  igno- 
rant, belligerent  and  contumacious,  having 
no   rights    that    Englismen  were    bound   to 


146  Home  Rule, 

respect,  we  see  how  far  the  habit  of  power, 
the  greed  of  wealth,  and  a  worldly  vanity 
upheld  by  an  assumption  of  religious  su- 
premacy, have  been  efficient  in  destroying 
the  first  simple  and  pure  ideas  of  righteous- 
ness, moral,  social  and  political. 

This  high  and  holy  principle  has  been 
sacrificed  times  without  number. 

From  such  a  view  we  are  led  to  conclude 
that  the  indictment  against  the  whole  En^- 
lish  Government  is  correct,  when  this  indict- 
ment declares  that  there  is  scarce  one 
redeeming  quality  in  the  policy  that  has 
been  maintained  by  that  Government  during 
these  long  years,  but  rather  that  there  is  but 
little  parallel  in  history,  either  among  bar- 
baric or  half-civilized  tribes  of  men,  to  such 
rapacious  cruelty,  such  unjust  assignment  of 
political  rights,  as  is  here  presented. 

Such,  indeed,  seems  to  be  the  case,  and 
what  the  leading  Christian  nation  of  the 
world  should  have  done  was  not  to  vie 
with  semi-barbaric  tribes  in  all  the  riot  and 
glut  of  power  after  a  conquest,  but  with  this 
power  still  remaining  in  their  hands,  seek  to 
govern    by  such  politic   measures  as  would 


Home  Rule.  147 

have  assured  the  conquered  people  that 
their  real  prosperity,  order  and  just  law,  were 
the  purpose  of  the  dominating  power  they 
should  have  shown ;  and  then  the  Act  of 
"  Union  '  would  have  taken  possession  of 
the  hearts  of  the  Irish  people,  and  the  Brit- 
ish Empire  stand  before  the  world,  what  she 
claims  herself  to  be,  the  rightful  exponent  of 
the  bravest  and  best  among  nations. 

Would  that  it  were  so,  and  then  we  would 
not  be  compelled  to  search  long  and  unsuc- 
cessfully for  some  redeeming  quality,  some 
justifying  relation  of  things  to  excuse  these 
acts  of  aggressive  power. 


While  we  of  America  condemn  England's 
tarcly  justice  and  her  actual  criminality  to- 
wards Ireland,  let  us  remember  that  we  are 
of  the  same  stock ;  her  ancestors  are  ours ; 
her  history  until  within  a  little  more  than 
a  hundred  years  is  our  history.  We  of  this 
young  nation  have  a  clear  field,  an  open 
arena.  We  have  escaped  the  duty  of  solv- 
ing questions  which  the  accretions  of  time 
and  the  complications  of  dense  populations 


148  Home  Rule. 

have  left  in  the  path  of  English  progress  ; 
more  severe  tests  than  any  yet  endured 
are  before  this  young  republic.  Shall  the 
smouldering  fires  of  municipal  misrule,  of 
the  alcoholic  liquor  traffic,  of  anarchy,  con- 
sume our  institutions,  or  shall  our  struggle 
with  them  purify  our  national  character  ? 

What  are  the  evils,  and  what  the  reme- 
dies ?  Upon  a  conscientious  solution  is  the 
welfare  of  our  nation  dependent.  Many  of 
these  evils  are  the  direct  outcome  of  real 
and  fancied  evils  in  our  system  of  land 
tenure,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  fruit- 
ful cause  of  Ireland's  distress.  The  careless 
thinker  may  scoff,  but  it  is  easier  to  sneer 
at  the  theories  of  Henry  George  than  to  pa- 
tiently study  conditions  which,  even  in  a  land 
so  favored  as  is  ours,  already  cause  distress 
and  suffering.  In  the  immediate  past,  our 
ready  answer  to  all  suggestions  of  agrarian 
discontent  has  been  to  point  to  our  immense 
West.  But  what  was  once  known  as  the 
Great  American  Desert,  now  knocks  for 
admission  as  a  State,  while  pleasant  farms 
and  thriving  villages  fill  the  territory  beyond, 
once  unknown  save  to  the   Indian  and  trap- 


Home  Rule.  149 

per.  Remembering  that  the  best  land  is 
always  taken  first,  and  that  as  the  quantity 
of  land  remaining  decreases,  so  does  the 
quality  of  the  land  depreciate,  and  that 
much  of  what  was  once  our  country's  patri- 
mony is  now  held  by  speculative  syndicates, 
many  of  them  composed  of  foreign  aristo- 
crats, we  cannot  settle  the  question  by  drafts 
upon  resources  which  no  longer  exist.  Our 
unemployed  can  no  longer  be  calmly  referred 
to  Western  land  as  the  panacea  for  all  their 
complaints.  We  have  had  our  Haymarket 
Square.  Let  us  beware  lest  that  sudden 
outburst  become  a  flowing  lava  stream  of 
menace.  To  England,  with  her  crowded 
population  and  small  area,  these  problems 
have  come  in  all  their  intensity.  Similar 
questions  confront  us,  although  the  con- 
ditions under  which  they  must  be  solved 
are  much  more  favorable. 

At  our  first  constitutional  centennial  we 
do  well  to  set  up  our  monuments  of  prog- 
ress, but  we  do  better  to  observe  the  ruins 
of  history.  Observing  these  failures  in 
governmental  policy,  these  inhumanities  of 
aggressive  power,  these  disasters  of  national 
arrogance,  may  we  avoid  a  like  calamity. 


There  is  nothing  more  refreshing  to  pick  up  in 
odd  minutes  than  a  bright  collection  out  of  the 
jX)etry  of  all  time  of  the  brightest  on  almost  no 
matter  what  subject,  even  the  weather. 

Through  the  Year  with  the  Poets,  edited  by  Oscar  Fay 
Adams.  A  volume  a  month  of  about  140  pages  each,  with 
ample  indices.  16mo,  cloth,  75  cents  each;  parti-colored  cloth, 
$1.00. 

And  dainty  book-making  has  much  to  do  with 
the  pleasure  of  scrappy  reading. 

New  Every  Morning,  a  year-book  for  girls,  by 
Annie  H.  Ryder,  is  a  helpful  thought  or  two,  out  of 
current  writers  mainly,  for  every  day  in  the  year; 
not  religious,  but  chosen  for  serious  aptitude  to 
the  state  of  things  in  the  world  we  live  in.  196 
pages.     Square  lGmo,  cloth.  $1.00 

Notable  Prayers  of  Christian  ITisiory.  By  Ilez- 
ekiah  Butterworth.  So  far  as  we  k.iow,  there  is 
no  other  book  in  which  are  gathered  the  notable 
prayers  of  devout  men  of  all  times  with  their 
biographical  and  historical  connections.  30f  pages. 
16mo,  cloth,  1.00. 


Let  not  the  bookseller  venture  a  word  on  sc  ab- 
struse a  subject  as  Browning. 

Christmas  Eve  and  Easter  Day,  and  Other  Poems.  By 
Robert  Browning.  Introduction  by  W.  J.  Rolfe.  The  Theory 
of  Robert  Browning  concerning  Personal  Immortality  by 
Ileloise  Edwina  Hersey.  With  notes.  175  pag  :s.  16mo,  cloth, 
75  cents. 

For  Browning  Classes  and  Clubs.     The  text  is 
-in  very  generous  type. 

Faith  and  Action  is  an  F.  D.  Maurice  Anthology. 
Preface  by  Phillips  Brooks.  The  subjects  are: 
Life,  Men,  Reforms,  Books,  Art,  Duty,  Aspira- 
tion, Faith.     269  pages.     12mo,  cloth,  $1-00. 


Quito  a  new  sort  of  history.  School  days  over, 
four  girl  friends  return  to  their  homes  and  life 
begins.  As  often  happens,  life  is  not  as  they 
picture  it.  What  it  was  for  the  four  and  how 
they  met  it  you  shall  read  in  the  quiet  book. 

After  School  Days.       By  Christina  Goodwin.      196  pages. 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

It  is  a  comforting  fact  a  thousand  times  that 
nobody  knows,  to  be  sure  of  it,  what  is  good  for 
him  or  her.  Disappointments  are  often  shorn  of 
their  bitterness  by  the  remembrance  of  it.  Often 
what  we  look  forward  to,  hope  for,  strive  for, 
make  ourselves  anxious  about,  turns  out  to  be  of 
no  particular  value;  and  what  we  fear  and  strive 
against  turns  out  good  fortune.  Rarely  is  this 
practical  wisdom  made  so  sure  as  in  this  whole- 
some history  out  of  the  stuff  that  dreams  are 
made  of. 


A  practical  help  for  a  girl  to  surround  herself 
with  pleasant  things  without  much  shopping.  The 
book  is  mainly  filled  with  ways  to  exercise  taste 
on  waste  or  picked-up  things  for  use  with  an  eye 
to  decoration  as  well. 

For  a  Girl's  Room.    By  Some  Friends  of  the  Girls.    236 
pages.     12mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

A  friendly  sort  of  a  book  to  fill  odd  minutes, 
whether  at  home  or  out,  for  herself  or  another. 
By  no  means  on  "  fancy-work"  —  not  all  work  — 
Chapter  XXI  is  How  to  Tame  Birds  and  XXV  is 
What  to  Do  in  Emergencies. 


How  to  Cook  Well  is  promising  title.  The  an- 
thor,  J.  Rosalie  Benton.  We  light  on  tins  sen- 
tence on  breakfast:  "Yet  in  how  many  families 
is  it  the  custom  to  send  the  master  of  the  house 
to  his  daily  round  of  business  with  an  unsatisfied 
feeling  after  partaking  of  a  hurried  meal  alto- 
gether unpalatable !  "  That  is  still  more  promis- 
ing. There  are  400  pages  of  performance.  12mo, 
cloth,  $1.50. 


One  of  the  ways  to  get  some  notions  of  things 
Into  young  folks'  heads  without  any  work  on  their 
part  is  to  tell  them  stories  and  weave  in  the 
knowledge. 

Another  way  is  to  make  a  book  of  such  stories. 
The  book  has  the  advantage  of  the  story-teller. 
It  can  be  full  of  pictures ;  and  one  can  be  more 
careful  in  making  a  book  than  in  talking.  If  his 
memory  slips  a  little,  he  can  stop  and  hunt  up  the 
facts. 

Story  Book  of  Science.  By  Lydia  Hoyt  Farmer.  Illus- 
trated.    330  pages.     12mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

There  are  twenty  different  stories  and  seventy 
five   pictures.     A   surprising  number    of   bits  of 
knowledge  are  woven  and  pictured   in ;    and  the 
book  is  as  light  and  easy  as  if  it  were  nonsense. 

There's  so  much  to  know  nowadays.  Children 
have  to  begin  before  they  know  it. 


Waifs  and  their  Authors  is  a  collection,  by  A. 
A.  Hopkins,  of  poetry  worthy  of  preservation, 
mainly  out  of  newspapers  and  by  living  writers 
not  yet  ranked  as  Poets  —  with  notes,  personal, 
biographical,  critical,  genial  always,  under  twenty- 
one  names.     317  pages. 


The  family  Flights,  by  Edward  Everett  Hale 
and  Susan  Hale,  are  a  series  of  book  journeys 
through  the  several  countries  with  eyes  and  ears 
wide  open,  old  eyes  and  young  eyes,  and  ears.  The 
books  are  full  of  pictures,  and  fuller  of  knowl- 
edge not  only  of  what  is  going  on  but  what  has 
gone  on  ever  since  book-making  began,  and  fuller 
>et  of  brightness  and  interest.  You  see  the  old  as 
old ;  but  you  see  it ;  you  see  where  it  was  and  the 
marks  it  left.  You  see  the  new  with  eyes  made 
sharper  by  knowledge  of  what  has  gone  on  in  the 
world. 

In  other  words  these  books  amount  to  some- 
thing like  going  through  these  places  with  a  trav- 
eling-companion who  knows  all  about  them  and 
their  histories. 

They  are  written  and  pictured  for  boys  and 
girls :  but  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  the  old  folks 
going  along.     Will  you  go? 

Family    Flight    through   Franco,    Germany,  Norway    and 
Switzerland.     405  pages. 

Family  Flight  over  Egypt  and  Syria.    38S  pages. 

Family  Flight  through  Spain.     360  pages. 

Family  Flight  around  Home  (which  means  about  Boston/ 
366  pages. 

Family  Flight,  through  Mexico.     300  pages. 

Each  8vo,  boards,  $1.75  ;  cloth,  $2.25. 

One  of  the  most  effective  means  of  exciting 
and  satisfying  zeal  for  knowledge  of  the  world  we 
have  in  books. 


A  good  book  for  young  folks  is  Ned  Mel- 
bourne's Mission,  not  too  good  to  have  a  spice  of 
life  and  adventure,  but  with  that  indirect  influence 
for  good  thinking  and  good  doing  that  is  more 
potent  than  a  sermon  to  young  people. 

Ned  Melbourne's  Mission.    12mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 


Date  Due 


-M-^r 


um 


°^'  0  H  ?qq\ 


„§ OSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031  01211347 


8 


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